OTTAWA - The Government of Canada has agreed to a request from the World Food Programme (WFP) to extend the support to the WFP humanitarian operation currently provided by HMCS Ville de Québec. This operation, which allows the safe shipment of life saving humanitarian assistance into Somalia, will be extended to no later than October 23, 2008.
On August 6, 2008, HMCS Ville de Québec was assigned to escort civilian vessels loaded with humanitarian food aid from Mombasa, Kenya to Mogadishu, Somalia, at the request of the WFP and the International Maritime Organization (IMO), both agencies of the United Nations. This task was set to end September 27, 2008, but it has been extended to allow the WFP more time to secure a replacement naval escort.
Since 2007, warships from NATO nations have been escorting WFP shipments from Kenya to Somalia to ensure their safe passage through waters notorious for piracy.
The WFP shipments are intended to meet the urgent needs of more than 2.4 million Somalis who rely on food aid, of which 90 percent arrives by sea. So far, 22,000 tonnes (22,000,000 kilograms) of corn and soy meal - enough to feed 145,125 people for a year - have been delivered to Somalia by ships escorted by HMCS Ville de Québec.
HMCS Ville de Québec will continue her mission under Operation ALTAIR. Following this extension, she will return to her original assignment on Operation SEXTANT, in the Mediterranean Sea with Standing NATO Maritime Group 1. She is scheduled to return to Canada in December.
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Notes for news and assignment editors:
For more information on Operation SEXTANT and Operation ALTAIR, visit www.cefcom.forces.gc.ca.
For more information on the World Food Programme, visit http://www.wfp.org/english/ .
For still and video imagery of Canadian naval vessels at work, visit www.combatcamera.forces.gc.ca.
