CAIRO (AP) — Families in western Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region have finally received a much-needed increase in emergency food aid to avert a looming famine, the U.N. food agency said Thursday.
In an update, the World Food Programme said five convoys carrying 5,000 tonnes of food aid have crossed into Darfur from neighbouring Chad since the start of 2024.
Several trucks of aid entered the region on June 10 and finished delivering to southern Darfur on Thursday, WFP Sudan communications director Leni Kinzli told The Associated Press. Distribution of supplies continues in central and western Darfur.
“The food distributions are an emergency scale-up to avert famine, reach the most food insecure people and prevent widespread hunger,” said Kinzli. “But we need to go further and expand access. We are working to open new corridors from South Sudan and Egypt and to expand cross-border access from Port Sudan into Darfur.”
Famine is looming in parts of Sudan that have been engulfed in violence since April last year, when rising tensions between leaders of the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Aid Forces led to fierce fighting that spread across the country, including in Darfur.
WFP's latest distribution was part of two aid convoys that have traveled to Sudan over the past few weeks, delivering enough supplies to more than 245,000 people. The first convoy crossed Sudan on 23 May, delivering aid to 117,000 people in South and Central Darfur states.
“We're not only meeting the immediate need, but making sure we have enough supplies to see people through the coming months,” Kinzli said, “especially in areas where we expect road conditions to worsen with rain over the next few weeks and become harder to reach.”
In May, the WFP said in a report that at least 1.7 million people were already suffering from emergency levels of hunger in Darfur, including in Al-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, which is under siege by the RSF.
Challenges in reaching communities in Darfur include securing access through negotiations, which Kinzli said is “complicated” because many of the checkpoints are controlled by different armed groups. She added that delivering aid to places where heavy fighting is taking place, such as Al-Fasher, is extremely dangerous.
Deteriorating road conditions have caused mechanical problems for some of WFP's aid trucks during recent food aid deliveries, but three more WFP convoys carrying food and nutritious supplies are due to enter Darfur from Chad via the Tine border crossing in the coming weeks to reach 675,000 people.
Carlos Perea Milla of the Sudan logistics team for the international humanitarian organization Action to End Hunger told The Associated Press that Tine, which leads to North Darfur, is the only authorized crossing point for UN agencies. The Adore crossing is sometimes used by humanitarian organizations and provides access to RSF-controlled areas. UN humanitarian agencies have called for Adore to be used as another authorized crossing point into Sudan.
Fatma Khaled, The Associated Press
