The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is warning that intensified fighting in Sudan and the arbitrary obstruction of humanitarian convoys are hampering the rapid and uninterrupted delivery of desperately needed aid. WFP said Thursday it is working tirelessly to extend food and nutrition assistance to millions more people across Sudan - with the aim of tripling the number of people it supports to 7 million.
The UN agency said its top priority is to deliver life-saving assistance to locations facing famine or on the brink of famine.
Twenty-seven locations across Sudan are either in famine or at risk of famine. More than one-third of children in the most impacted areas are now acutely malnourished, well above the threshold for a famine declaration.
On April 15, 2023, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a brutal war that has created the world's largest humanitarian crisis. The United Nations estimates that 30 million people - two-thirds of Sudan's population - are in need of humanitarian assistance as a result of the conflict.
Sudan continues to face a catastrophic humanitarian situation, with some 24.6 million people - nearly half of the Sudanese population - facing acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or worse). The rapid deterioration of food security in Sudan has left 638,000 people in catastrophic conditions (IPC Phase 5), while 8.1 million people are estimated to be in emergency hunger (IPC Phase 4).
“Just last month, a convoy — crossing Adre, Chad and heading to Darfur — took three times longer to reach its destination. That was due to interferences, such as needing to obtain new clearances and needing additional inspections,” said UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric on Thursday.
“It finally reached its destination earlier this week — but it took the convoy six weeks after its departure to reach its destination, for a journey that would normally take a maximum of two weeks.”
WFP reported that after crossing the Adre border from Chad in mid-December, local RSF officials detained some 40 humanitarian trucks for nearly three weeks, demanding new permits and inspections. As a result, the WFP-led convoy had to be diverted to another famine-prone area in the Darfur region. Upon arrival, the RSF again detained the trucks and made additional demands.
“We call — over and over again — on all parties on the ground in Sudan to remove all unnecessary barriers and obstacles that are preventing our humanitarian response to the growing hunger crisis in the country,” Dujarric said.
WFP said the neutrality and independence of aid workers and humanitarian operations must be respected and the safe passage of humanitarian assistance to hard-to-reach, famine-stricken areas must be guaranteed.
Since launching a major surge of food aid in late 2024, WFP has moved into hard-to-reach areas, including Zamzam camp in North Darfur, southern Khartoum, and Gebaish in West Kordofan. In January, the UN agency even reached Wad Madani in Gezira State after the town became safe enough for trucks carrying food and nutritional supplies to pass through.
According to WFP, more than 2.5 million people per month received much-needed food and nutrition assistance in the last quarter of 2024, many for the first time since the conflict began. “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.”
There are other problems impeding humanitarian operations. A national liquidity crisis has led to widespread cash shortages. WFP cash and in-kind food distributions to more than 4 million people have been delayed for more than a month due to a lack of banknotes to pay porters to load trucks.
However, recent efforts by the Central Bank of Sudan and the Ministry of Finance to ease the crisis and increase the availability of cash have allowed WFP operations to gradually resume.
On Tuesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed its deep concern at the recent upsurge in attacks on critical civilian infrastructure in Sudan.
Attacks on power plants, water stations and dams in Northern State, Nile, Sennar, White Nile and Gedaref have caused extensive damage and endangered the technical teams operating and maintaining these facilities. They also severely affected the availability of essential services to the civilian population.
The war in Sudan has caused famine, killed tens of thousands of people, and driven millions from their homes.
Some 15.8 million people are currently displaced by conflict in Sudan, making it the largest displacement crisis in the world. The vast majority of the displaced - more than 12.5 million women, children and men - have been uprooted by the war, which erupted in April 2023 and continues unabated.
Over the course of 21 months, more than 9.1 million people - including refugees already living in the country - have been internally displaced, and more than 3.4 million have been forced to flee to neighboring countries, including Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic.
Chad has been at the center of the Sudanese refugee crisis. Since the conflict began in April 2023, more than 734,000 refugees and more than 220,000 Chadian returnees have entered eastern Chad, which borders Sudan's western Darfur region.
On Monday, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) called on the UN Security Council to take decisive action to address the worsening atrocities in Darfur. Karim Khan also announced that his office is preparing applications for new arrest warrants in connection with alleged crimes committed in West Darfur.
The situation in the Darfur region, particularly in North Darfur, continues to deteriorate with daily bombings, air strikes, intercommunal conflict and the spread of armed groups.
Khan had a clear message for the warring parties on the ground in El Fasher in North Darfur State, El Geneina in West Darfur State, and throughout the Darfur region.
“Now, better late than never, for goodness sake, comply with international humanitarian law, not as a charity, not out of some political necessity, but out of the dictates of humanity,” he said.
Also on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres strongly condemned an attack on the Saudi Hospital in El Fasher in North Darfur State, Sudan, last Friday that reportedly killed at least 70 patients and their relatives, including children, and injured dozens more.
The hospital was fully occupied at the time of the attack, which was reportedly carried out by the Rapid Support Forces. The horrific attack on the only functioning hospital in Darfur's largest city came after more than 21 months of war have left much of Sudan's health system in tatters.
Less than 25 percent of health facilities are functioning in the states most affected by the war, and only 45 percent of such facilities are fully functional in other states.