Aid agencies struggle to reach Ukraine’s ‘beseiged’ cities

ROME, 20 March 2022, (TON): UN’s World Food Programme said “aid agencies are struggling to reach people trapped in Ukrainian cities ringed by Russian forces, including hundreds of thousands of women and children."

Emergency coordinator Jakob Kern told media “the challenge is to get to the cities that are encircled or about to be encircled.”

Lack of humanitarian access is making it almost impossible to deliver emergency food supplies to the besieged port city of Mariupol, the northeastern city of Kharkiv and the northeastern city of Sumy.

Kern said “it was a tactic that was unacceptable in the 21st century.”

He said “the Rome-based WFP has had to start the mission to stock up Ukraine’s warehouses from zero.”

The agency hopes to reach 3.1 million people in Ukraine, but efforts to move supplies such as pasta, rice and canned meat around are hampered by difficulties in finding willing truck drivers.

Rate this item
(0 votes)
Login to post comments
Go to top