挽救索马里儿童急需航空业协助

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.

她说，这些紧急食品，足以救治三十万名营养不良的儿童。她指出，这些食品可以在几个小时之内空运到肯尼亚首都内罗毕。只不过空运费用特别昂贵。

“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.”

她说：“例如，一架珍宝喷射运输机从法国运送100公吨的医疗食物到内罗毕，费用是三十五万美元。这个数字相当于这批货物的价值。另外的选择是海运，我们为此设立了一个管道。但是这将有长达六个星期的时间差异。因此，我们每个星期须要空运四百公吨的食品。”

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动的经费问题令人担忧。人道主义协调办公室报告说，联合国的旱灾救援行动，只有百分之44的经费有了着落。报告中说，他们还急需十四亿美元的经费。

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.

联合国儿童基金会就他们的整体救援部分，需要三亿一千四百万美元。到目前为止，这个机构只收到所需款项的三分之一。他们说，这个数字和他们所需的经费，距离太远。

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.

默卡铎说，过去一个星期以来，英航，德航，联合包裹运递，维京航空和卢森堡空运都提供了一定期限的免费服务，将紧急物资运送到内罗毕。

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

她希望，这几家业者提供的免费服务，将鼓励其它公司也前来提供协助。