Aid trucks cross Chad-Darfur border via Adré

More than a dozen trucks carrying humanitarian aid crossed from Chad into Darfur, Sudan, yesterday, according to a statement by the World Food Programme (WFP). The WFP convoy, which also included vehicles from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), made its way through the Adré border crossing, a crucial route for delivering much-needed assistance.

WFP confirmed that its trucks were laden with essential food supplies, including sorghum, legumes, oil, and rice. These provisions are intended to aid approximately 13,000 people facing severe food insecurity in the Kereinik, West Darfur.

Meanwhile, IOM reported that its delivery of vital relief items would support more than 12,000 people in need across the region.

In a press release yesterday, WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain stated, “We urgently need to reach every corner of Sudan with food assistance, and this requires all humanitarian corridors and border crossings to be open so aid agencies can bring in supplies every single day. This is the only way to avoid widespread starvation.”

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) emphasised the strategic importance of the Adré crossing, noting that it remains the most effective and direct route for delivering humanitarian assistance at the scale and speed necessary to address Sudan’s deepening hunger crisis.

WFP highlighted the efficiency of this route, noting that aid trucks can now cross into Darfur from Adré and reach key distribution points within the same day, avoiding the slower El Tina border crossing between Chad and North Darfur. Not to mention the even more perilous route from Port Sudan, which crosses battle frontlines and areas controlled by different armed groups.

Efforts to sustain this humanitarian lifeline are ongoing. OCHA confirmed they are in continuous communication with Sudanese authorities to facilitate the arrival of additional aid convoys in the coming days and months.

Maintaining a steady flow of food and nutrition assistance to and through Sudan is critical, with numerous regions at risk of famine.

WFP is scaling up its operations in Sudan, aiming to provide food assistance to more than eight million men, women, and children by the end of the year. UN agencies and their partners are working tirelessly to avert a worsening humanitarian catastrophe in the region.

Earlier this month, Radio Dabanga reported that Sudan’s military-led Transitional Sovereignty Council, chaired by Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, announced a three-month opening of the Adré border crossing from Chad into West Darfur. The Joint National Committee for Humanitarian Emergencies will coordinate the operation with Qatari aid officials.

The move aims to facilitate humanitarian aid for civilians displaced by Darfur’s violence. This decision was made following El Burhan’s boycott of diplomatic talks in Geneva. The government had resisted opening the Adré crossing, citing that it was allegedly being used to funnel military supplies to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).