Nairobi, Kenya—06-21-11—An airplane from the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) program in South Africa is flying to Kenya to reinforce the mission organization’s response to the famine in the Horn of Africa.

Over the past week, MAF has flown leaders from relief and mission organizations, as well as ambassadors from several countries, into the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya to assess the situation.

The organization is also experiencing increasing demand for flights into South Sudan following the country’s independence earlier this month.

“MAF is in contact with a number of relief organizations working in the area,” said John W., MAF manager of disaster response and security.  “We are ramping-up our capacity to respond should the need for relief flights continue to grow.”

With this additional plane, MAF will have seven aircraft in Kenya.  To maximize flight capacity, MAF crews have been working into the night so that planes are ready to depart early each morning.

On Wednesday, the UN declared a famine in parts of southern Somalia.  Across the region, 11 million people are facing a hunger crisis caused by several years of severe drought.