In a warning, World food program expressed deep concern about the “escalation of fighting” in Sudan’s Sennar state. More than 136,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, many of them for the second or third time since the conflict began.
So far, the UN agency has assisted 46,000 people to flee to neighbouring Blue Nile state and another 3,000 to seek refuge in adjacent Gedaref state.
In an update, WFP said the violence had “severely impacted” operations across the region, including White Nile, Blue Nile, Kassala and Gedaref states.
‘Completely cut off’
“Fighting in Sennar has cut off vital food and fuel supply routes into the state, leaving people without access to basic needs,” WFP explained, adding that Its logistics hub in Kosti in White Nile state is “completely cut off” from Port Sudan on the coast, after rival RSF paramilitary forces entered on 29 June.
“The route from Port Sudan to Kosti (via) Sennar is currently inaccessible,” WFP continued, describing the route as “a lifeline to support hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan, including many communities at risk of famine in the Kordofans and Darfur regions”.
Still on the western side of Sudan, the UN food agency also reported that aid to Darfur from neighbouring Chad had also “stopped”.
“Adre border crossing from Chad remains closed and the route from Chad to Darfur via Tine is impassable due to heavy rains and flooding caused by the rainy season.
The last WFP aid shipment passed through Tine is in mid-July, the UN agency said.“This has left many areas cut off from aid,” the report continued, in a call for all humanitarian corridors to be opened so that aid groups “can reach all those in need.”
Support for millions of displaced people
So far this year, WFP has assisted more than four million internally displaced people, refugees and vulnerable host communities across Sudan, including 1.4 million in June alone. But the needs are much greater, WFP warns.
“Sudan is the world’s largest hunger crisis. We need to provide food on this scale.”
Talks end, call for ‘substantive progress on the ground’
In a related development in Geneva, UN-led talks between Sudan’s warring parties concluded on Friday. Leading the talks with representatives from the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, Ramtane Lamamra, held a total of about 20 meetings with delegations.
He said in a statement that he now believes the parties “will quickly translate their willingness to cooperate with him into real progress on the ground.” in Sudan, where some 10 million people have been displaced after 15 months of war and humanitarians have warned that hunger, disease and fighting are threatening the population.
