Sudan: Aid agency seeking to reach 7 million people with food aid
January 30, 2025 (PORT SUDAN) – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) says it is working tirelessly to expand food and nutrition assistance to millions more people across war-torn Sudan.
The agency, in a release, said it is seeking to triple the number of people it supports to 7 million, prioritizing life-saving assistance delivery to locations facing famine or teetering on its brink.
According to WFP, intensified fighting and the arbitrary obstruction of humanitarian convoys are hindering the fast and consistent movement of desperately needed aid.
It has pushed into hard-to-reach areas, including Zamzam Camp in North Darfur, South Khartoum and Gebaish in West Kordofan since launching a large-scale surge of food aid in late 2024,
Over 2.5 million people per month received much-needed food and nutrition assistance in the last quarter of 2024, including many for the first time, since the conflict began, WFP said.
In January, for instance, the UN agency said it even reached Wad Madani in Gezira State after the city became safe enough to get trucks of food and nutrition supplies through.
“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, acting Country Director for Sudan.
“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,” he added.
WFP further said a convoy headed to areas already in famine, or at-risk of famine, in Darfur, took three times longer to reach its destination due to interferences. After crossing the Adre border in mid-December, local officials from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) reportedly held-back some 40 humanitarian trucks for nearly three weeks, requiring new clearances and inspections.
As a result, the WFP-led convoy had to be redirected to another famine-risk area in the Darfur region.
“On arrival, the RSF held the trucks again and made additional demands. Finally, the convoy finally reached its destination earlier this week, a full six weeks after its departure, for a journey that would normally take a maximum of two weeks,” noted the release.
Meanwhile, WFP calls on all parties on the ground in Sudan to remove all unnecessary barriers and obstacles that are preventing a full-scale humanitarian response to Sudan’s growing hunger crisis.
It stressed the need to respect the neutrality and independence of aid workers and humanitarian work.
Sudan currently face a catastrophic humanitarian situation, with approximately 24.6 million people or nearly half of Sudan’s population reportedly facing acute food insecurity.
In addition, 27 locations across Sudan are either in famine or at risk of famine, while more than one-third of children in the hardest hit regions are acutely malnourished, aid agencies say.
(ST)