The WFP stresses the importance of its logistics base in Las Palmas in response to Ebola in West Africa

The World Food Programme (WFP) expressed their gratitude this morning, through its head of Maritime Transport Service, Judith Anne Thimke, for the facilities provided to this organisation by the Spanish authorities in general and the Canary Islands in particular to properly meet the requirements of the Ebola crisis in West Africa. "Without wanting to get dramatic, the fact is that without the port of Las Palmas we could not have done what we have done," said the WFP representative, today lecturing at Casa Africa on the logistical challenges the Ebola crisis has meant for its organisation and the central role of WFP headquarters in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the humanitarian response offered by this UN agency to this crisis.

Thimke said the Canary Islands port is among the top ten in cargo movement for humanitarian agency, with a volume of over 45,000 tons of food material transferred last year. She also explained that WFP accepted, as a result of this emergency, a mandate that goes beyond the "normal" in the agency's work and that included logistics, transport of humanitarian staff and other tasks beyond the distribution of food aid . Judith Anne Thimke said the Ebola crisis had been a learning opportunity for WFP, which has worked with difficult loads and ports, problems of a healthcare type and other circumstances that have helped them to be better prepared to face future crises.