The World Food Programme says a small convoy carrying food is entering Sudan through a temporarily reopened border crossing with Chad.
The World Food Programme (WFP) says a humanitarian aid convoy has entered Sudan's Darfur region, offering a temporary respite after Sudanese forces closed sections of the border with Chad to aid deliveries in February.
The United Nations agency said Wednesday that more than a dozen trucks have delivered food aid to some 13,000 people facing famine in the Kereinik region of western Darfur.
The agency added that it had food ready to be distributed to 500,000 people. More than six million people face food insecurity in Darfur, as do more than 25 million, or about half the population, across the country.
“More than a dozen aid trucks, including some from the WFP and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), have crossed into Darfur from Chad through the Adre border crossing,” UN chief Antonio Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday.
The crossing of Adre from Chad to #Sudan It is the most effective and shortest route to deliver humanitarian assistance, particularly to the Darfur region, on the scale and speed necessary to avoid widespread famine.
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— World Food Program (@WFP) August 22, 2024
The trickle of aid represents only a small portion of the assistance that is available but is unable to get through because of restrictions by the Sudanese military, which says its rivals in a 16-month war are using the route to transport weapons.
In April last year, fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Last week, the military announced it would temporarily reopen the crossing for three months to allow life-saving aid into Darfur, where more than six million people face food insecurity and the UN has detected famine.
Justin Brady, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, said in a social media post earlier this week that while 131 aid trucks had been approved for entry into Sudan, only 15 were allowed in before Sudanese authorities halted the movement.
“The Adre crossing from Chad into Sudan is the most effective and shortest route to deliver humanitarian assistance, particularly to the Darfur region, at the scale and speed needed to avert widespread famine,” WFP said in a social media post on Thursday.
The RSF, locked in a fierce fight with the Sudanese army that has pushed the country toward mass starvation, welcomed the deliveries in a statement on Wednesday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday hailed the opening of the border crossing as a “positive first step” but also said it should last longer.
“The three months coincide with the rainy season, which naturally makes access difficult due to heavy rains and flash floods,” the aid group said in a statement.
