Unamid support remains key to aid efforts in Darfur

Humanitarian organisations are conducting verification and needs assessments among the newly displaced in North Darfur and Jebel Marra. Most of the people displaced by the recent attacks in North Darfur are receiving assistance. Yet, the delivery of aid in Central Darfur is hampered by insecurity and bureaucratic impediments.

“Support from Unamid remains key to the timely provision of humanitarian assistance,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan reported in its latest weekly bulletin.

Relief organisations have so far registered 32,490 newly displaced people in North and Central Darfur. They are discussing with the authorities the need to facilitate Unamid escorts for the provision of humanitarian aid, in particular in Central Darfur.

In North Darfur, most of 28,476 displaced people registered, have received life-saving assistance. “This assistance includes food, health service, nutritional support and non-food items. Aid delivery has been delayed in some area such as Um Baru due to insecurity along the roads.”

The UN Office states that “there have been difficulties providing adequate quantities of clean water for displaced people in Tawila camps, as well as education services for newly displaced children”.

Jebel Marra

“Humanitarian interventions in Central Darfur however, have been limited due to a lack of access, ostensibly due to the volatile security situation and bureaucratic impediments,” the bulletin reads.

The Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) reported that an estimated 36,000 people were recently displaced in the area of Jebel Marra.

“Humanitarian actors have been unable to access these people, and confirm and respond to their needs,” according to OCHA.

“So far, only 4,000 newly displaced people in Guldo town in West Jebel Marra have been assessed, following a HAC-led mission with participating international NGOs and national partners. According to the mission, these people are in need of food, emergency household supplies, drinking water, latrines, as well as health services and nutritional supplies.”