Time is running out to prevent starvation in Darfur as intensifying clashes in North DarfurÂ’s capital El Fasher hinder efforts to deliver vital food assistance into the region, warned World Food Programme (WFP) Friday.
Civilians in El Fasher and the wider Darfur region are already facing devastating levels of hunger, yet deliveries of food assistance have been intermittent due to fighting and endless bureaucratic hurdles, the UN WFP said in a press release.
The latest escalation of violence around El Fasher has halted aid convoys coming from ChadÂ’s Tine border crossing, a recently opened humanitarian corridor that passes through North DarfurÂ’s capital, it added.
Restrictions from the authorities in Port Sudan are jeopardizing the WFP’s plans to provide vital assistance to over 700,000 people ahead of the rainy season when many roads across Darfur become impassable, it said.
“Our calls for humanitarian access to conflict hotspots in Sudan have never been more critical: WFP urgently requires unrestricte
d access and security guarantees to deliver assistance to the families struggling for survival amid devastating levels of violence,” it noted.
Meanwhile, Michael Dunford, WFPÂ’s Regional Director for Eastern Africa, said: “We must be able to use the Adre border crossing and move assistance across frontlines from Port Sudan so we can reach people throughout the Darfur region.” The recent surge in violence in El Fasher is exacerbating critical humanitarian needs in Darfur, where at least 1.7 million people are already experiencing emergency levels of hunger (IPC4), he said, regretting that conditions were already critical with reports of children dying of malnutrition.
On top of the impact of the escalating violence, WFP is concerned that hunger will increase dramatically as the lean season between harvests sets in and people run out of food, warned the WHO official.
“The situation is dire. People are resorting to consuming grass and peanut shells. If assistance doesn’t reach them soon, we risk witnessing wi
despread starvation and death in Darfur and across other conflict-affected areas in Sudan,” said Dunford.
He concluded by saying: “One year of conflict in Sudan has created an unprecedented hunger catastrophe and threatens to ignite the worldÂ’s largest hunger crisis. With almost 28 million people facing acute food insecurity across Sudan, South Sudan, and Chad, the conflict is spilling over and exacerbating the challenges already faced by its neighbours. The window to avert the worst is rapidly closing.
Source: Kuwait News Agency