Famine-hit Sudan camp gets first aid convoy in months
A camp in Sudan, home to about 500,000 displaced people and suffering from famine, has received its first aid convoy in months. The United Nations’ trucks reached Zamzam on Friday, a camp for those who fled during Sudan’s 18-month civil war.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) explained that food deliveries had been delayed for months due to intense fighting near the city of el-Fasher in Darfur, as well as impassable roads caused by the rainy season.
The ongoing conflict, a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has led to the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, displacing 10 million people and causing widespread hunger.
Since April, the population in Zamzam has surged as people fled the RSF’s assault on el-Fasher, the last city under military control in western Darfur.
In August, a group of independent food security experts declared Zamzam to be in famine. To meet the criteria for famine, at least 20% of households must be severely food insecure, 30% of children must be acutely malnourished, and two out of every 10,000 people must die daily from hunger or related diseases.
The recent aid convoy is part of a broader WFP effort to provide food to the most vulnerable and remote areas affected by conflict. In total, three convoys with over 700 trucks have been sent, carrying enough supplies to feed 1.5 million people for more than a month.
Some of them food aid is also heading to South Kordofan state.
“These trucks carry more than just food; they carry a lifeline for people caught in the crossfire of conflict and hunger.
“We need guaranteed safe passage for our trucks and sustained international support to reach every family at risk,” Laurent Bukera, the WFP’s regional director for eastern Africa, said.
The warring sides have both been accused of blocking and looting aid, but both deny the allegations.
The convoy that arrived in Zamzam camp on Friday had left Adré on the border with Chad on 9 November – a key route for bringing aid into Darfur.
This corridor had been closed by an order from the army-controlled government in February and re-opened for three months in August.
Members of the government had protested against the opening, arguing that it allows for the RSF to deliver weapons, the Reuters news agency reported.
Last week, the government agreed to keep it open for another three months.
A second convoy of WFP aid left the army stronghold of Port Sudan, Sudan’s only port, 10 days ago and it is also heading to Zamzamp camp in the west.
