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Côte d'Ivoire

Air Passenger Service in response to the humanitarian crisis in Cote d’Ivoire

Attachments

Executive Summary

The disputed election towards the end of 2010 in Cote d’Ivoire sparked a serious of violent incidences and has lately developed into an armed conflict, with heavy fighting in several of the regions in the country. Since the beginning of the crisis hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee the violence and leave their homes, and there are around 800,000 internally displaced people in the country and at least 125,000 Ivorian refugees in Liberia urgently in need of humanitarian assistance.

The humanitarian community is facing difficulties and constrains in order to mount an efficient response to the humanitarian crisis. The armed conflict and the general volatile security situation are restricting the movement of aid workers and their access to the affected populations, in order to carry out assessment and implementation aid and relief projects.

This Special Operation (SO) caters for the provision of safe, reliable and cost efficient air transport service to the humanitarian community between and inside Cote d’Ivore and Liberia as well as the other West Africa Coastal countries in response to the humanitarian crisis.

Through this project WFP is planning to operate one 50-seater passenger/cargo capacity aircraft (Dash 7) or other type of aircraft suitable for the area, for the operations and in line with the available funding. The main operational base will be in Accra, Ghana. The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) will be organized and managed by WFP.

This Special Operation is covering the period from 15 th April to 15 th July 2011 at a total cost of US$ 1,882,433.