German Help Three starts relief mission in Kenya

25.10.2011

The team of Heli Aviation has started work with the German Help Three helicopter for the humanitarian relief missions in Kenya. As with German Help One and German Help Two in Haiti, it is planned for German Help Three to support the mission of the relief organisations in crisis areas of Kenya and guarantee the fastest possible help from the air.

Heli Aviation GmbH dispatched a Eurocopter AS 350 B2 Ecureuil, German Help Three, together with crew, to support the relief organisations helping with the refugee drama in East Africa. The helicopter is used primarily for passenger and freight flights. German Help Three flies medical staff, employees of various relief organisations, medicines and various other relief supplies to their operational areas or destinations, the numerous refugee camps near the Somali border. The AS 350 B2 is an extremely spacious and powerful helicopter, which can transport external loads of up to one tonne. The base of the Heli Aviation relief operation is located in Kenya's capital Nairobi. An additional important strategic base has been set up in Wajir, in the north-eastern province of Kenya near the Somali border. The five-man Heli Aviation team, consisting of three pilots, a dispatcher and a technician, has already started work and is flying the first local missions for the various relief organisations.

Dadaab – relief drama East Africa
As a result of the Somali civil war, which has raged for the past 20 years, and the associated famine in the south of Somalia, in 1990 the first hundred thousand Somali refugees fled to Kenya, most of them to Dadaab. Together with various relief organisations, the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) maintains the refugee camps of Dagahaley, Hagadera and Ifo. These three camps, approximately 100 km south of Wajir and less than 100 km from Somalia, currently form the largest refugee camp in the world. Here refugees seeking protection and refuge from war, violence and displacement are looked after.

The tent cities once set up for 100,000 residents now provide refuge for almost 300,000 people and the number of refugees continues to rise - daily. Every month the refugee camps accept almost 5,000 new refugees. With dramatic consequences – the camps have no more space and hygienic conditions, medical provision and infrastructure have long been inadequate for looking after refugees.

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