FedEx helps Unicef with Somalia food airlift

Approximately 91 metric tonnes of high-nutrient food was delivered to Nairobi, Kenya, in response to the famine in Somalia, by FedEx Express, a leading express transportation company.

The charitable initiative was organised in collaboration with Unicef with the aim of offering life-saving assistance to severely malnourished children in south and central Somalia.  

FedEx used a Boeing 777F aircraft to complete the large-scale humanitarian mission.

The in-kind donations currently make FedEx the single largest provider of philanthropic airlifts of aid for Unicef in response to the famine in Somalia.  Together the food will treat over 6,000 children and provide fortified food for 4,000 families for two weeks, it said.

The Boeing 777F aircraft departed from Paris in the evening and arrived in Nairobi the following morning. 

Unicef is currently transporting the aid into Somalia, ensuring that the relief shipment reaches those children most deeply affected by the crisis.

FedEx Express maintains a longstanding commitment to disaster relief.  The company donated more than five million pounds (approximately 2,300 tons) of charitable shipping last year alone.

“The crisis in the Horn of Africa calls for a prompt and unwavering response. I am both humbled and honored that FedEx can lend its logistics expertise and global transportation capabilities to help Unicef bring much-needed relief to the children of this region.” said Gerald P. Leary, president, FedEx Express Europe, Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and Africa. 

“An estimated 2.3 million children are suffering from malnutrition in the Horn of Africa,” said Tim Hunter, deputy director, fundraising, Unicef. 

“We are grateful to FedEx for the company’s generosity.  The life-saving food supplies will reach some of the most vulnerable children whose lives Unicef and partners are working hard to save", he said.

The food shortage has been recognized as the most severe humanitarian crisis in the world to date.  Famine was declared in parts of south Somalia in July.  Since then, more than a thousand Somali children continue to arrive in Ethiopia and Kenya on a daily basis. – TradeArabia News Service