The spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General on Wednesday said the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed that more than a dozen aid trucks, including some from the World Food Programme and the International Organization for Migration, have crossed into Darfur from Chad via the Adre border crossing.
According to Stéphane Dujarric, WFP says their trucks were carrying sorghum, pulses, oil, and rice that will benefit some 13,000 people who are at risk of famine in the Kereneik area of West Darfur.
“For its part, IOM says the essential relief items delivered to Sudan will support more than 12,000 people in need,” he stated. “As we said before, the Adre crossing from Chad is the most effective and the most direct way for us to deliver humanitarian assistance to Sudan at the scale and speed required to respond to the huge hunger crisis in the country.”
Dujarric added: “The World Food Program tells us that trucks can cross into Darfur from Adre and then reach key distribution points on the very same day-basically, in one day.”
He said that in the meantime, UN humanitarians continue to engage with the Sudanese authorities to facilitate additional trucks coming in the next days and months due to the need for a constant supply of humanitarian goods.
“It is critical to sustain that flow of food and nutrition assistance into and across Sudan, where more than a dozen areas are either at risk of or in famine,” the spokesperson asserted. “WFP is scaling up food assistance there and aims to support more than 8 million men, women, and children by the end of this calendar year.”
Heading south to South Sudan, he said the Force Commander for the UN Peacekeeping Mission, Lieutenant General Mohan Subramanian, was in the town of Renk, in the Upper Nile State on Wednesday. While there, he stressed the need for urgent planning and collaboration to mitigate the risks of predicted heavy rains and flooding.
“Since the start of the current round of hostilities in Sudan, more than 780,000 men, women, and children have crossed the border and headed to Renk town,” Dujarric reported. “Peacekeepers established a temporary base in the area and are helping to ensure the safe delivery of aid, providing protection to deter violence between diverse communities forced to live together in congested conditions and share dwindling resources.”