WFP appeals for safe passage of aid convoys through Sudan

The World Food Programme (WFP) has called on Sudan’s warring parties to ensure the safe passage of two aid convoys en route from Port Sudan to North Darfur and South Kordofan.

In a video posted on X (formerly Twitter), WFP’s deputy country director in Sudan, Alex Marianelli, explained that one convoy is destined for Zamzam camp in North Darfur, aiming to provide food assistance to 27,000 people. The other will deliver aid to Delling and Kadugli, the state capital of South Kordofan, to feed 10,000 people.

“Those convoys are going to embark on their journey today. They’ll be leaving across this long road, across the desert, across [valleys], in order to reach these populations. They’ll be crossing dozens and dozens of armed checkpoints across the road.

“What we require is for the people of all parties of the armed conflicts that are holding those checkpoints to let these trucks through. It’s imperative that these trucks manage to get there in order to feed the populations that desperately require this food assistance”.

Mohamed Jamal, WFP’s spokesperson in Sudan, highlighted the urgency of these efforts. He explained to Dabanga that the convoys are heading to “hot hunger areas” laden with essential food and nutritional supplies for displaced communities.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) declared a famine in Zamzam camp in August.

In Delling, South Kordofan, food shortages have reached similarly critical levels. As previously reported by Dabanga, desperate families are sending their young children into forests and fields to gather plants, which are boiled to reduce bitterness and mixed with whatever meagre ingredients families can find. However, many children eat the plants before they are properly prepared, leading to fatal poisoning.

Attacks on aid

Since the start of the war between the Sudan Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15, 2023, the personnel, offices, and convoys of humanitarian organisations have repeatedly been attacked.

In June 2023, WFP said that its warehouses in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, came under attack and were looted.

At the end of September 2023, three people were killed, and five others injured, when a large convoy moving from Port Sudan to North Darfur, accompanied by the Darfur Joint Forces, was attacked on the way by gunmen blocking the road in El Kuma, North Darfur.

Bureaucratic hurdles

Earlier this week, WFP said it sent aid convoys from Chad through the Adré border crossing headed to North Darfur, aiming to deliver food assistance to about 12,500 displaced people in the Zamzam camp. It urged for authorities to keep the border crossing open, as it was set to close today, when a prior agreement to keep it open would lapse.

As reported yesterday, Sudanese authorities decided to extend the opening of the Adré crossing for three months, enabling UN agencies to continue humanitarian operations.

Last month, Sudan’s Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim called for the crossing to be closed “today before tomorrow”, on the premise that the route is used to supply the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).