UN hopes to resume suspended food aid in N. Darfur

ROME, Oct. 14 (Reuters) – The United Nations hopes to resume food distribution to some 50,000 people in northern Darfur in about a week after violence forced a suspension of operations there, a spokesman said on Thursday.

The decision to temporarily suspend operations around Ummbaru came after two aid workers from Save the Children were killed on Sunday when their vehicle hit an anti-tank landmine.

World Food Programme spokesman Barry Came told Reuters from Khartoum the group was awaiting security clearance to resume operations there.

“The WFP has stockpiled food for these refugees in the town of Kutum, which is 150 km south of the (blast) area,” he said.

“We hope to be able to get that food to these people as soon as the U.N. clears the road, which is likely to be within a week or so.”

The United Nations calls Darfur one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, and puts the death toll at up to 50,000 from violence, hunger and disease.

Rebels took up arms last year, accusing Khartoum of neglect and of using mounted Arab militants to loot and burn non-Arab villages and kill their inhabitants.