挽救索馬里兒童急需航空業協助

The U.N. Children’s Fund is appealing to the air transport industry for free or heavily discounted cargo space to help transport emergency nutritional supplies to the Horn of Africa. UNICEF says hundreds of thousands of acutely malnourished children urgently need therapeutic treatment to keep them alive.

聯合國兒童基金要求民用航空界以免費或大幅度折扣價格，承運營養品，緊急供應非洲之角地區。聯合國兒童基金說，當地數以百萬計的兒童遭遇嚴重營養不良情況，急需治療以維持生存。

UNICEF spokeswoman, Marixie Mercado, says getting emergency supplies of food to malnourished children in the Horn of Africa as quickly as possible is a matter of life or death.

聯合國兒童基金髮言人馬里克西·默卡鐸說，緊急供應食物，儘速救濟非洲之角營養不良的兒童，是一場決定生死的大事。

“There are over 2.3 million acutely malnourished children in the Horn of Africa. More than half a million will die if they do not get help within weeks. With therapeutic feeding a child can fully recuperate in a matter of four to six weeks," said Mercado. "We are asking the air transport industry for free or heavily discounted airline cargo space to transport this therapeutic food to children who will die without it.”

她說：“在非洲之角，有兩百三十多萬兒童遭遇營養不良的問題。其中五十萬以上的兒童如果幾個星期之內得不到救助，就會死亡。醫療性的餵食，可以讓孩子們經過四至六個星期的休養，恢復健康。我們要求航空公司提供免費或者鉅額折扣的貨運服務，將這些營養藥品運送給這些兒童，否則他們將會死亡。”

The worst drought to hit the Horn of Africa in 60 years is having a devastating affect upon the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. The United Nations reports nearly 12.5 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia are facing starvation.

非洲之角正遭受六十年以來最嚴重的旱災。災情給數百萬人的生活和生計造成毀滅性的影響。根據聯合國的報告，在肯尼亞、埃塞俄比亞、吉布提和索馬里，有將近一千二百五十萬人面臨飢餓。

People in Somalia are particularly hard hit as they try to survive the twin disasters of conflict and drought. The United Nations warns famine, which is present in several regions of southern Somalia, is likely to spread throughout the entire region in the next two months.

其中索馬里人民受災特別嚴重，因爲他們要在戰爭和災害雙重危難中掙扎求生。聯合國警告說，未來兩個月內，饑荒很可能會從索馬里南部的幾個地區蔓延到整個區域。

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs or OCHA reports one quarter of Somalia’s 7.5 million people are either internally displaced or have fled to neighboring countries in search of assistance. It says about 1.25 million children across southern Somalia are in urgent need of life-saving assistance.

聯合國人道主義協調辦公室的報告指出，索馬里七百五十萬人口中，有四分之一的人不是在國內流離失所，就是遠離家園，逃荒到鄰近國家尋求救助。報告說，在索馬里南部各地，有大約一百二十五萬兒童急需救助。

Mercado says UNICEF can help save these children’s lives if her agency can get special nutritional food to them quickly. She says UNICEF has more than 5,000 metric tons of emergency food in warehouses in Belgium, France and Italy.

默卡鐸說，如果聯合國兒童基金能夠迅速將營養食品送給那些孩子，就能挽救他們的生命。她說，聯合國兒童基金在比利時、法國和意大利的倉庫中，存有五千公噸的緊急食品。She says this is enough to treat 300,000 malnourished children. She notes these supplies could be flown to Nairobi in a matter of hours. But, air transport is extremely costly.

她說，這些緊急食品，足以救治三十萬名營養不良的兒童。她指出，這些食品可以在幾個小時之內空運到肯尼亞首都內羅畢。只不過空運費用特別昂貴。

“A cargo jumbo jet, for instance costs about $350,000 to transport 100 metric tons of therapeutic food from France to Nairobi. And, that cost is pretty much equivalent of the cost of the cargo itself," said Mercado. "The other alternative is via sea and we are setting up a pipeline for doing this. But, we have a six-week gap, which means that we need to transport 400 metric tons per week via air.”

她說：“例如，一架珍寶噴射運輸機從法國運送100公噸的醫療食物到內羅畢，費用是三十五萬美元。這個數字相當於這批貨物的價值。另外的選擇是海運，我們爲此設立了一個管道。但是這將有長達六個星期的時間差異。因此，我們每個星期須要空運四百公噸的食品。”

The funding situation for humanitarian operations for the Horn of Africa is dire. OCHA reports the U.N.’s Drought Appeal is only 44 percent funded. It says $1.4 billion more is urgently required.

非洲之角人道救援行動的經費問題令人擔憂。人道主義協調辦公室報告說，聯合國的旱災救援行動，只有百分之44的經費有了着落。報告中說，他們還急需十四億美元的經費。

UNICEF is asking for $314 million as its part of this consolidated appeal. To date, the agency has received about one-third of this sum, which it says is far too little to do what needs to be done.

聯合國兒童基金會就他們的整體救援部分，需要三億一千四百萬美元。到目前爲止，這個機構只收到所需款項的三分之一。他們說，這個數字和他們所需的經費，距離太遠。

UNICEF spokeswoman Mercado says over the past week, British Airways, Lufthansa, UPS, Virgin and Cargo Luxos have offered to transport some of the emergency supplies to Nairobi free of charge for a limited period of time.

默卡鐸說，過去一個星期以來，英航，德航，聯合包裹運遞，維京航空和盧森堡空運都提供了一定期限的免費服務，將緊急物資運送到內羅畢。

She says she hopes these offers will inspire other airlines to step forward.

她希望，這幾家業者提供的免費服務，將鼓勵其它公司也前來提供協助。