In a call for greater global solidarity with the people of Sudan, the World Food Programme (World Food Programme) said about 800,000 people have fled to Ondo in neighbouring Chad after facing “unimaginable violence”.
WFP communications officer Leni Kinzli told reporters in Geneva that people fleeing famine-prone areas said they had left “because there was nothing left to eat and all their crops had been destroyed by floods”.
Too dangerous to farm
Others said they “couldn’t even farm because it was too unsafe to go to their fields” due to fighting between Sudanese forces and the Rapid Support Forces that broke out on April 15 last year.
“We are doing everything we can, but we cannot stop the widespread famine and hunger-related deaths without the support and attention of the international community,” said Ms Kinzli. “World leaders must give this humanitarian catastrophe the attention it needs, attention that must translate into concerted diplomatic efforts at the highest levels to push for a humanitarian ceasefire and ultimately an end to the conflict.”
Access to assistance granted
Since the Adre border crossing from Chad to Sudan reopened a month ago, WFP has transported 2,800 tons of food and nutritional supplies to the Darfur region, ensuring enough aid for a quarter of a million people. Of that number, 100,000 are at risk of famine, according to the UN agency, which warned that the war has pushed some 36 million people into famine in Sudan and the neighbouring region.
“Trucks carrying essential food and nutrition supplies are crossing the border every day, despite delays caused by flooded rivers and muddy roads where aid convoys are stuck,” said Ms Kinzli.
Although Chad is not at war, the needs there are also enormous, the WFP official explained: “People are only confronted with hunger and poverty” once they cross the border into Sudan, she said. “Despite receiving food aid, Many struggle to make ends meet and, if they are lucky, only eat once a day. Like a teenage girl I met… who lost her parents and now cares for her younger siblings. Sometimes she can only offer them water instead of a meal. If that is the situation for people in a relatively safe and stable environment, it is hard to imagine what people who are facing famine or at risk of famine in Sudan are going through.”