The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched an emergency cargo transport service in Myanmar to help humanitarian agencies deliver essential supplies to communities cut off by severe flooding.

The free logistics service, available to UN humanitarian partners, will initially support relief operations in Lemyethna, Yegyi and Ngathaingchaung, where floods in recent months have displaced thousands of families.

For at least two weeks, WFP will transport food and nutrition supplies, medicines, water and sanitation equipment, and emergency shelter materials to hard-to-reach areas. According to UN News, the initiative is aimed at strengthening the wider humanitarian response as floodwaters and damaged infrastructure continue to restrict access to affected communities.

“When floodwaters isolate entire communities, logistics becomes the difference between success and failure of an operation,” WFP Myanmar Country Director Michael Dunford said, stressing that the agency is supporting relief partners beyond its own food assistance programmes.

The UN agency has also expanded emergency food assistance in Sagaing Region, which continues to face the combined effects of conflict, limited humanitarian access and connectivity problems following a major earthquake earlier this year.

WFP said it has so far reached around 15,000 people with emergency food rations across Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady and Sagaing regions as humanitarian needs continue to grow.

BOB Post