Delivery of urgent relief supplies to emergency victims

Access to victims of complex emergencies is a critical issue in many situations. UNVs in Angola have helped to keep peace-corridors open for the delivery of vital relief supplies. In Somalia, a team of UNV Air Traffic Controllers and other UNV navigation and safety specialists from neighbouring countries played a crucial role for ICAO in re-opening Mogadishu airport to cargo traffic, and in expanding flight schedules to accommodate airlifts for delivery of food relief at the height of the recent famine.

Far from home, Peter Mueti (Kenya) has become a veteran UNV specialist in relief operations and logistics. After serving in Afghanistan for some years ensuring relief supplies arrived at their isolated destinations, he went on to the former Yugoslavia, where he served as escort officer on UNHCR-run relief convoys to Sarajevo, in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Later he moved to Podgorica, Montenegro, and organized warehouses, distribution plans, and coordination with the Montenegrin Red Cross, for deliveries of 21,000 MT of food and other materials, including 17,000 MT to 21 municipalities for 67,500 refugees. He also pre-positioned items for anticipated influxes of new refugees.

Additionally, since the Gulf War in 1990, UNVs have been providing essential services in water and sanitation, nutrition, food aid monitoring, etc. through UNHCR, WFP, WHO, UNICEF and other UN agencies, to the Kurdish population in the north of Iraq.