Heavy Fighting in Sudan Disrupts Humanitarian Aid Deliveries
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has expressed deep concern over the escalation of fighting in Sudan’s Sennar State, which has severely curtailed humanitarian aid deliveries across vast areas of the southeast. The conflict has forced over 136,000 people to flee their homes, many for the second or third time since the conflict began.
The WFP has provided support to 46,000 people who fled to neighboring Blue Nile state and 3,000 who sought refuge in adjoining Gedaref state. However, the violence has severely affected operations across the region, including White Nile, Blue Nile, Kassala, and Gedaref states.
The WFP’s logistics hub in Kosti, White Nile state, is completely cut off from Port Sudan on the coast, after rival paramilitary force the RSF moved in on June 29. The route from Port Sudan to Kosti, which cuts through Sennar, is currently inaccessible, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan, including those at risk of famine in the Kordofans and Darfur region, unable to access basic needs.
In addition, the WFP reported that getting assistance into Darfur from neighboring Chad has halted due to heavy rains and flooding brought by the rainy season. The Adre crossing from Chad is still closed, and the Chad to Darfur crossing via Tine is inaccessible. The last WFP aid delivery via Tine was in mid-July, leaving many areas cut off from assistance.
The WFP has supported over four million internally displaced people, refugees, and vulnerable host communities across Sudan this year, including 1.4 million in June alone. However, the needs are far greater, with Sudan facing the world’s largest hunger crisis.
In a related development, UN-led talks between Sudan’s warring parties concluded in Geneva, with the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General, Ramtane Lamamra, calling on the parties to promptly translate their willingness to engage into tangible progress on the ground. The conflict has uprooted around 10 million people, and humanitarians have warned that famine, disease, and fighting are closing in on the population.
