Sudan
The largest operation of the WFP United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) is in Sudan. UNHAS Sudan currently operates with 18 fixed-wing aircraft and 4 helicopters in nine operational hubs, El-Fasher, Geneina, Juba, Khartoum, Loki, Malakal, Nyala, Rumbek and Wau, serving close to 110 locations in both Darfur and South Sudan on a regular basis -61 destinations in North/Darfur and 47 in South Sudan.
The significant size of the humanitarian aid community working in Sudan combined with, at times, a precarious security situation which allows only extremely limited access by surface transportation, demands a continued and augmented humanitarian air transport capacity. Compounding the situation is the annual rainy season when air transport becomes the only viable transport option. At this point, commercial passenger air services in Sudan do not meet the standards or serve all the locations required by the humanitarian aid community.
WFP has had operations in Sudan ranging from food airdrops to passenger flights for more than 10 years, the most significant of which were the emergency airdrops of food aid to victims of war and drought in Southern Sudan in 1998. The airdrops were a part of a USD 65.8 million WFP operation that delivered 83,000 tons of food to 2.48 million Sudanese. The airdrop operations ended in 2007.
In 2004, WFP expanded its North Sudan operations to a UN common service, and the size of operations in the country has been growing ever since.
