NAIROBI, Kenya
The World Food Program (WFP) on Thursday warned that efforts to expand food aid in Sudan are being obstructed by the ongoing armed conflict, worsening an already dire hunger crisis.
Despite launching a large-scale operation to assist up to 7 million people, the WFP said humanitarian convoys are facing severe delays, particularly in famine-hit areas.
“We have made significant breakthroughs in getting aid deliveries to hard-to-reach areas in the last three months, but these cannot be one-off events,” said Alex Marianelli, WFP’s acting country director for Sudan.
The UN said that a WFP-led convoy heading to famine-affected areas in Darfur was held up for nearly six weeks due to repeated obstructions by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group that has been engaged in a power struggle with Sudan’s army since April 2023.
The 40-truck convoy, which crossed the Adre border in December, was stopped for nearly three weeks before being redirected due to additional RSF demands.
When it finally reached its destination earlier this week, it had taken triple the usual time, worsening food shortages for communities in desperate need.
“We urgently need to get a constant flow of aid to families in the hardest-hit locations, which have also been the most difficult to reach,” Marianelli said.
Adding to the crisis, a severe cash shortage in Sudan has delayed WFP food distributions for more than 4 million people, with scarcity of banknotes preventing payments to workers needed to load and transport supplies.
The WFP has urged all parties in Sudan to respect humanitarian neutrality and remove all obstacles blocking food deliveries, noting that 24.6 million people facing acute food insecurity and 27 locations are either in famine or at risk of famine.
The conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has claimed more than 20,000 lives and displaced 14 million people, according to the UN and local authorities.
