GENEVA: A United Nations aid convoy has arrived in two isolated cities in Sudan’s Kordofan region, one of the war’s most intense battlefronts.
“This marks the first major delivery of assistance to the area in three months,” the World Food Programme said in a statement.
The UN reported that 26 trucks delivered essential supplies, including medicine and food, to more than 130,000 people in the cities of Dilling and Kadugli.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn by a bitter power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Kadugli, the capital of famine-hit South Kordofan, had endured a punishing RSF siege for much of the conflict before the army broke the blockade this month.
Nearby Dilling, where the army also recently lifted an RSF siege, is believed to be experiencing similar famine conditions.
The two cities have come to exemplify the brutal violence in Kordofan, where hundreds of thousands face starvation under daily drone strikes.
Dilling lies roughly halfway between Kadugli and El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan.
According to the World Food Programme (WFP), violent clashes and ongoing insecurity along the main route linking the three cities forced the convoy to halt for more than 40 days.
The trucks ultimately reached Dilling by taking a longer and more difficult off-road passage.
“Routes must stay open and predictable so vital assistance can reach people without interruption, including communities that have been cut off for far too long,” said Makena Walker, acting country director for WFP in Sudan.
The UN human rights chief reported on Monday that at least 90 civilians were killed and many more injured by drone strikes in the Kordofan region over just two weeks.
“In a period of just over two weeks to February 6, based on documentation by my office, some 90 civilians were killed and 142 injured in drone strikes,” Volker Turk told the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The nearly three-year war has killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million, and triggered what the UN describes as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
With truce talks deadlocked for months, the UN has repeatedly urged both warring parties to respect international humanitarian law and allow unimpeded access for aid.
The UN last month warned that food aid in Sudan is set to run out by the end of March unless new funding is secured, raising fears for millions caught up in the world’s largest hunger crisis.
The UN earlier declared famine in three displacement camps around El-Fasher as well as in parts of the Nuba Mountains in the country’s south.
