The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) office in Chad has delivered 120 tons of humanitarian relief aid to Sudan’s East Darfur State, an official confirmed.
Jamal al-Zain Kabashi, the Director of the Sudanese Agency for Relief and Humanitarian Operations in East Darfur State, told Radio Tamajuz Tuesday that this is the third consignment of relief aid delivered by UNICEF to reach the Al-Daein, the capital of East Darfur State, from the Adré area on the Sudanese-Chadian border.
“The convoy carried nutrition supplies, milk for children, and some medicinal drugs,” he stated.
Kabashi added that they handed the relief to the state health ministry to oversee its distribution to deserving recipients.
The Sudanese Relief Agency emphasized its efforts to facilitate the work of organizations without any hindrance or complications to ensure the delivery of humanitarian assistance to citizens.
Meanwhile, the Director of Nutrition Management at the Ministry of Health in East Darfur, Ahmed Hamid Osman, said the delivery was possible due to coordination with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
“Through coordination between the RSF’s Consultative Council and the Sudanese Agency for Relief and Humanitarian Operations, we received the third batch of nutrition supplies, consisting of nutritional milk and routine medication for children aged 6 months to 59 months, along with nutritional support for lactating mothers from UNICEF,” he stated.
Hamid emphasized that the upcoming period may be “very challenging” due to the onset of autumn and the conditions it imposes, along with the threat posed by the food gap, describing the period as critical, as it lasts for several months from April to September.
He pointed out that besides the aid provided by UNICEF through its office in Chad, there is also a considerable amount of relief in the ministry’s warehouses that can cover the food gap from June to September, which are the autumn months.
East Darfur has witnessed protracted battles since the war broke out in April last year following bitter differences between Sudan’s Army Commander, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and Rapid Support Forces Commander, Mohammed Hamdan DagaloHemeti. The crisis has seen massive displacements of populations and the deaths of thousands of civilians across the country.