Food aid for displaced in Guldo, Central Darfur

Some 9,500 displaced in Guldo town in Jebel Marra, Central Darfur, received food aid last week.

The World Food Programme (WFP) distributed 90 tons of food aid last Thursday, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan reported in its latest weekly bulletin.

The people arrived in Guldo between March and June following fighting between government forces and the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Abdelwahid El Nur, and heavy aerial bombardments in the area.

In June, an inter-agency assessment mission visited the area of Guldo and identified the needs of the displaced people for food, emergency shelter and household supplies as well as health and sanitation services.

All of these needs were subsequently met except for the provision of emergency food aid. This only arrived after a delay of nearly two months. This was as a result of difficulties faced by the WFP in obtaining permission to transport the stocks from the Central Darfur capital of Zalingei to Guldo.

All 13,500 displaced people who have taken refuge in Guldo this year and who are eligible for food aid have now received emergency food rations, according to the WFP. Continuity of food assistance to displaced people in Guldo town will be determined by further assessment and registration by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) or in the event of a deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the town.

The UN Children’s Agency (Unicef) and partners are working with the government’s Department of Water and Sanitation (WES) to drill an additional boreholes and construct 500 latrines.