Sudan has received its first aid convoy after months of conflict, with three convoys carrying enough food for 1.5 million people for over a month. The World Food Programme is attempting to transport aid across Sudan, home to the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, forcing 10 million people from their homes and pushing communities into hunger.
Aid Convoys and Safe Passage
Three convoys in total with more than 700 trucks have been dispatched with enough food to feed 1.5 million people for over a month. Some of the aid is also heading to South Kordofan state.
The World Food Programme’s regional director for eastern Africa, Laurent Bukera, said that these trucks carry more than just food; they carry a lifeline for people caught in the crossfire of conflict and hunger. He emphasized the need for guaranteed safe passage for their trucks and sustained international support to reach every family at risk.
Challenges Ahead
The warring sides have been accused of blocking and looting aid, but both deny the allegations. The government-controlled government had protested against the opening of a key route for bringing aid into Darfur, arguing that it allows for the RSF to deliver weapons. Last week, the government agreed to keep it open for another three months.
A Second Convoy
A second convoy of WFP aid left the army stronghold of Port Sudan, Sudan’s only port, 10 days ago and is also heading to Zamzamp camp in the west.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said food deliveries had been held up for months due to fierce fighting in the nearby Darfur city of el-Fasher, as well as “impassable” roads brought on by the rainy season. The war has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, forcing 10 million people from their homes and pushing communities into hunger.
Aid Efforts
The WFP is attempting to transport aid across Sudan, home to the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis. Three convoys in total with more than 700 trucks have been dispatched, enough to feed 1.5 million people for over a month. Some of this food aid is also heading to South Kordofan state.
Background on the Crisis
The war, a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, forcing 10 million people from their homes and pushing communities into hunger. The conditions for classifying an area to be in famine are that at least 20% of households must be facing an extreme lack of food, with 30% of children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or from malnutrition and disease.
Food Deliveries Held Up
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said food deliveries had been held up for months by fierce fighting in the nearby Darfur city of el-Fasher, as well as the “impassable” roads brought on by the rainy season. The WFP is attempting to transport aid across Sudan, home to the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.
