More than a dozen aid trucks cross into Darfur from Chad

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that more than a dozen aid trucks – including some from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Organization for Migration – have now crossed into Darfur from Chad via the Adre border crossing, according to a UN spokesperson.

Stéphane Dujarric said in New York on Wednesday that WFP trucks were carrying sorghum, pulses, oil and rice that will benefit some 13,000 people who are at risk of famine in the Kereneik area of West Darfur.

“For its part, IOM says the essential relief items delivered to Sudan will support more than 12,000 people in need,” he added.

Dujarric reiterated, “the Adre crossing from Chad is the most effective and the most direct way for us to deliver humanitarian assistance to Sudan at a scale and speed required to respond to the huge hunger crisis in the country.”

The World Food Programme trucks can cross into Darfur from Adre and then reach key distribution points in the very same day – basically, in one day, he added.

Dujarric went on: “In the meantime, our humanitarian colleagues continue to engage with the Sudanese authorities to facilitate additional trucks coming in the coming days and months.”

“We will need a constant supply of humanitarian goods. It is critical to sustain that flow of food and nutrition assistance into and across Sudan, where more than a dozen areas are either at risk of or in famine," he added.

Dujarric concluded: “WFP is scaling up food assistance there and aims to support more than 8 million men, women and children by the end of this calendar year.”