NAIROBI/GENEVA:The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes the news that the Adre border crossing from Chad into Sudan will be opened, as the aid agency is in a race against time to save lives in war-torn Sudan. Across the country, WFP is scaling up assistance to 14 areas either in famine or at risk of famine, largely located in Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum, and Gezira, with the aim to support up to 8.4 million people by the end of the year.
The opening of this critical humanitarian corridor through Adre will enable us to deliver aid into Sudan's conflict-rattled Darfur region, where famine was confirmed just two weeks ago in Zamzam IDP camp near El Fasher, North Darfur's capital.
WFP is immediately mobilizing vital food and nutrition supplies to be transported via the Adre corridor over the coming weeks. We need to see trucks moving across this border every single day to get a consistent flow of aid into the region. As we speak, two convoys, with nearly 6,000 mt of food and nutrition supplies for around half a million people are being loaded, destined for risk of famine areas in the North, Central and West Darfur states as soon as official Government communication and clearances are received.
This comes at a crucial time, as the only other border crossing from Chad into Darfur (via Tine) has become largely impassable due to heavy rains, where around 30 trucks full of WFP assistance have been unable to cross a flooded seasonal river for nearly a month.
Across Sudan, what little hope the Sudanese are holding onto after 16 months of war is being swept away by heavy rainfall and floods. The rainy season is exacerbating the already devastating food security situation in Sudan. Floods are forcing more people from their homes, increasing humanitarian needs, and cutting off communities from vital assistance. Heavy rains have destroyed key bridges and made it extremely difficult for aid convoys to pass through muddy, flooded roads.
Currently more than 50 trucks carrying an estimated 4,800 mt of WFP food and nutrition assistance - enough for around 500,000 people - are stuck in various locations across Sudan and unable to move towards their final destinations due to flooded and impassable roads.
That's why it is ever more critical that additional humanitarian corridors are open, and that humanitarian access is massively expanded. WFP urgently needs all other border crossings into Sudan to open to be able to use every possible supply route to deliver urgently needed food and nutrition assistance as shifting frontline lines and now severe flooding means we must constantly negotiate and secure new routes for aid convoys. This includes a formal agreement between South Sudan and Sudan to transport aid from the south into Darfur, Kordofan, and Blue Nile.
As the Sudanese people continue suffering the unimaginable - bearing the brunt of the ongoing war and now also at nature's whim as the heavy rains are setting off a disaster on top of a disaster - now is the time for all actors, especially parties to the conflict, to come together and act in the interest of the Sudanese people who are now seeing what little hope they had left drowned by downpours nationwide.
The ongoing Geneva peace talks offer a vital opportunity for the international community to address widespread operational challenges and access impediments directly with the warring parties obstructing aid delivery. It is critical for that warring parties leave the battlefield and show up at the negotiating table, so we can get food moving to hunger-struck communities across the country in time before it's too late.
