UN, government to launch food aid programme to needy regions in Sudan

KHARTOUM, Aug 28 (AFP) — The United Nations’ World Food Programme and the Sudanese government will start in early September a programme to provide food to needy areas under the army’s control, a Sudanese official said Thursday.

Humanitarian Aid Commission Emergencies Director Khalid Faraj told AFP the programme aims to airdrop, airlift and ship by truck a total of 11,000 tonnes of food to more than 600,000 beneficiaries.

Among the areas to benefit he mentioned Bentiu, in the center-south, Darfur and northern Darfur, in the west, and Kassala, in the east.

The World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN children’s agency (UNICEF) launched last March the first major relief operation in Sudan’s eastern Blue Nile State to feed a total of 115,000 people ravaged by drought and war.

The Sudanese government signed on April 26 with the southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army and the United Nations an agreement to allow uninterrupted relief deliveries into regions rocked by conflict.

WFP said in May it urgently required 148,000 tonnes of food for some 3.2 million people in Sudan over the next 12 months.

Sudan’s 20-year civil war coupled by famine and disease has claimed at least 1.5 million lives, with at least another four million displaced, according to humanitarian sources.