CNN
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Food supplies to Sudan’s famine-threatened Darfur region have resumed after Sudanese authorities reopened a key border crossing after a six-month closure amid the country’s civil war.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement on Wednesday that the first convoy of trucks full of essential food supplies had arrived in Darfur from neighboring Chad across the reopened border at Adre.
The relief supplies are intended for 13,000 people in Kereneik in Darfur who are at risk of famine, the World Food Programme (WFP) said.
“WFP is holding food and nutrition supplies for around 500,000 people, which can be rapidly transported via the newly opened route,” the WFP statement continued.
More than 10 million people have fled their homes and at least 18,000 others have been killed since a civil war broke out between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). More than half the country’s population is now facing acute hunger, it said in a statement last month.
The Adre border crossing is the most direct and efficient route for delivering aid from Chad to Darfur, allowing trucks to reach key distribution points within one day.
During the border closure, the WFP said it was only able to send two convoys through Adre. Instead, the country had to use longer and more dangerous routes, often passing through conflict zones controlled by various militias.
Last week, the Sudanese government agreed to open key border crossings for humanitarian aid despite international pressure.
The Sovereign Council of Sudan announced that it would open the Adre border crossing with Chad for three months. The crossing was closed by the Sudanese army in February because it claimed the crossing was being used to transport weapons.
According to the UN-OCHA, 26 million people in Sudan are in need of aid – more than half of the country’s population.
