Sudan: The World Food Program announces fragile progress in its humanitarian operations

Since September, about 135,000 people in Zamzam camp – the only place in the world where famine has been confirmed – have received food aid, through trucks transported by WFP to the camp and commodity vouchers for locally sourced foods.

The UN agency indicated that it was able to assist 2.8 million people in October, the highest number it has recorded for any month since the conflict began in mid-April 2023. It said that it sent four times more food aid in November than in September. September when further approvals for humanitarian convoys were received.

The program said it is striving to provide vital food and nutrition assistance to 14 hunger hotspots, many of which are in besieged locations in Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum and Gezira where conflict continues to escalate. He said that he continues to provide aid across the border with Chad through the Adre crossing, noting that since August, he has transported 9,800 metric tons of aid to more than 850,000 people in the Darfur region through this vital corridor.

However, the program noted that fighting prevented a convoy from reaching areas where there was a risk of famine in North and South Kordofan, including Kadugli and Dilling, where trucks were forced to return to a safer location and were now waiting to be redirected to other accessible areas. In South Kordofan and Blue Nile State, as the situation allows.

The World Food Program said that it supported more than two million people with cash assistance in Sudan this year, stressing that the number of people receiving cash assistance today is ten times the number it was at the beginning of the year. He stressed the need to expand the scope of cash transfers and vouchers, as humanitarian access in Sudan is still limited, adding that the liquidity crisis in the country constitutes an ongoing challenge.