Bangkok - In an escalation of the tensions over the Myanmar military junta impounding humanitarian aid to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) late Friday warned that flights bringing in further aid would be stopped. WFP spokesman Paul Risley issued the warning after reports that the last two deliveries of 38 tons' worth of aid had been stopped at the airport.
He told BBC that the food assistance was held up in a warehouse and was not put onto lorries to take them to the people who needed assistance.
"It is sitting in a warehouse, it is not in trucks heading to Irrawaddy Delta where it is critically needed," Risley said, adding that the WFB now had no other choice than to stop further aid flights.
Richard Horsey, spokesman for OCHA, the group coordinating UN aid efforts in Myanmar, also warned about a stoppage of aid deliveries.
"If it's not clear that UN agencies will be smoothly cleared through customs then we won't let the flights depart, since that would imply that the goods aren't going to delivered to the UN or might start to pile up at the airport," he told Deutsche Presse- Agentur
