Airdrops - Aid from the Air
How and where we are supporting refugees in South Sudan.
The war in South Sudan has displaced more than 1.3 million people from their home regions. They have to seek out protection in refugee camps or with host families in remote villages where they are safe. There they are lacking the most basic items for survival. We are helping refugees with food and aid packages delivered from the air.
Rebels and mud: Roads are impassable
The long conflict is having catastrophic effects on the food supplies for people: the fields in South Sudan have not been cultivated since the spring. Harvests could not be brought in and reserves have long since been used up. In the overcrowded camps and in the villages, hunger is the order of the day.
Providing the war refugees with the most necessary goods is, however, a logistical challenge: many refugee camps lie in regions that are difficult to reach. During the rainy season, the roads turn into impassable mud tracks. In addition, rebels control the still-passable transport routes in the North and around the Nile. As a result, many families are completely cut off from the outside world.
Airdrops are insufficient
"At the moment in Bentiu we can only distribute half rations to the families", explains Mika. "There is an insufficient number of aeroplanes and helicopters to drop enough food. Together with the World Food Programme, we are planning further airdrops until the end of December, as it will be of some duration until people can plant seeds again and provide for themselves."
"Logistics and luck both play an important role in our work here in South Sudan", explains aid worker Jürgen Mika. He coordinates the relief flights locally. "We are carrying out airdrops in two locations: in Ganyiel and Nyal. In the future, food should also be dropped over Bentiu. Logistics are in demand, as the aeroplanes carrying the important staple foods come from the capital city Juba as well as from Ethiopia and Uganda. And you need luck that there are breaks in the rain sometimes: a good view is essential for dropping the relief packages and the valuable load should not become soaked through or sink into the mud or swampy areas.
How does an airdrop work?
- Find and secure accessible and suitable drop locations!
- Pack everything seven times: Strong woven sacks protect the sorghum, beans and lentils during the drop – everything is wrapped seven times.
- Heavy sacks are spread out over 100 metre lengths: After the drop, the heavy sacks, weighing up to 50 kilogrammes, must be collected up as quickly as possible, so that if they, for example, land in a marshy area, they don’t lie in the water for too long. With up to 680 sacks per plane-load and, ideally, three planes every day, this can take a while.
- Word-of-mouth and megaphone: The aeroplanes are good messengers themselves, but people are also mobilised through the use of megaphones, and the news about an imminent distribution will arrive in each of the remote villages.
- Every family receives monthly rations. We provide for the refugees in the camps, in villages and also their host families. Currently, that amounts to almost 150,000 people every month. In the Bentiu refugee camp alone there are 45,000 people and in Ganyiel 56,000.
- Helicopters are also deployed: Cooking oil and special foods for malnourished children, enriched with important nutrients, are transported by helicopter – they would be damaged if dropped from an aeroplane.