First UN food aid arrives in Darfur as Sudanese starve for months

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) commenced distributing food in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region for the first time in months, Al Jazeera reported yesterday.

This deliveries on Friday come amidst warnings of an impending famine caused by a year-long war and lack of access to food aid.

The WFP stated that two aid convoys carrying food and nutrition assistance for approximately 250,000 people for a month crossed the border from Chad in late March.

This marks the first WFP cross-border aid convoys to reach Darfur in western Sudan following extensive negotiations to reopen humanitarian corridors from Chad.

The ongoing conflict between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamad Hamdan, has led to one of the world’s worst hunger crises.

UN aid agencies have reported that about a third of the population, or 18 million people, are facing acute hunger.

The UN warned in March that 222,000 children could die from malnutrition in the coming months unless their aid needs are urgently met.

Despite the aid delivery, the WFP has been unable to schedule further convoys, raising concerns about the worsening hunger catastrophe in the country.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has reported that Sudan’s cereal production in 2023 was nearly halved, with the sharpest reductions reported in areas where the conflict was most intense, including Kordofan state and states in Darfur.

The WFP’s top envoy to Sudan, Eddie Rowe, expressed fear that unprecedented levels of starvation and malnutrition could sweep across Sudan as the lean season starts in just a few weeks.