On the 19th of July, EU NAVFOR French Frigate Courbet completed another safe and successful escort of a World Food Programme (WFP) vessel from Kenya to Somalia, enabling much needed food-aid to reach the country where a famine has been declared.
Since December 2008, the European Union’s first navy operation, Operation ATALANTA, has conducted the first priority task of the protection and escort of World Food Program vessels, against piracy and armed robbery in the Indian Ocean and delivered more than 500,000 metric tons of food which supports nearly 1.2 million people every day.
Escorting WFP vessels from the beginning of the operation has meant that not a single ship carrying WFP food to Somalia has been attacked: all of them have arrived safely with their cargo properly delivered.