Bangkok/Kuala Lumpur - After a slow start in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, the International Federation of the Red Cross Red Crescent (IFRC) expects to double its emergency relief deliveries to storm-devastated Myanmar this week, officials said Monday. The IFRC has scheduled five 40-ton charter flights to depart from Kuala Lumpur for Yangon, said Igor Dmitryuk, head of the IFRC's logistic unit in Kuala Lumpur.
"The needs of survivors in large parts of the country remain acute. These larger flights will make our operations more cost and time-effective, and most importantly enable us to send more aid into Myanmar," said Dmitryuk.
Since Cyclone Nargis swept over Myanmar's central coastal region on May 2 to 3, leaving at least 133,000 dead or missing, the IFRC has flown in 25 flights to Yangon carrying a total of 302 tons of essential relief items.
This week's additional flights will see at least a further 230 tons arrive in country, said Dmitryuk.
"There is a momentum and rhythm now to the pipeline going into the country," said John Sparrow, the Bangkok spokesman for the IFRC.
While Myanmar's ruling junta has welcomed international aid, the regime has been harshly criticized for refusing to grant visas to international aid workers and otherwise slowing the emergency operation.
Although two weeks after the cyclone struck, the relief effort has started to gain some momentum, an estimated 500,000 people are still in desperate need of food.
From May 3 to last weekend, the World Food Programme (WFP) was able to fly in 14 flights to Yangon International Airport and the IRRC managed 24.
"The WFP continues to make progress, but it is slow and insufficient," agency spokesman Marcus Prior acknowledged at a Bangkok press conference.
The UN agency estimated it needs to fly in about 375 tons of food a day to Myanmar to meet the requirements of 750,000 hungry people.
The Myanmar government was the main cause for the slow delivery during the first two weeks of the UN emergency operation, sources said.
"It was a question of landing rights and getting approvals," said Sparrow.
With its close ties to the semi-governmental Myanmar Red Cross Society, the IFRC has had some success getting its emergency aid, primarily shelters, water purification tablets and mosquito nets, into the Irrawaddy Delta, the region hardest hit by the cyclone.
In general, foreign relief experts have been blocked from working in the delta region. The IFRC has distributed goods through its network of some 28,000 volunteers working with the Myanmar Red Cross.
