United Nations World Food Programme or WFP announced that its Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) will continue to fly throughout the month of February after the US government pledged funds.
Last week, WFP announced that it would suspend the humanitarian flights in South Sudan if it did not get enough pledges of funds until the end of January.WPF Public Information Officer George Forminyen told CRN on Thursday that the donor community pledge enough money to keep UNHAS flying until the end of February.
He commended the US government that pledged funding UNHAS on Thursday and the donor community for supporting the humanitarian flights in South Sudan.
Mr Forminyen said UNHAS needed 40 million US dollars to run the service in 2013.
He added that WFP received pledges of seven million dollars from Canada, European Union, Germany, Switzerland and United States of America.
The service still needs another 20 million.
Mr Forminyen said the remaining 12 million dollars would be collected through booking fees.
UNHAS was on the verge of suspending humanitarian flights due to shortage of money.
The service is also streamlining its booking system to maintain its humanitarian character and control the transport of guns by the authorities.