For the first time since the civil war broke out in April 2023, a convoy carrying food aid has arrived in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
According to the United Nations, the country is currently experiencing the “world’s worst hunger crisis” due to fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
As trucks loaded with aid rolled into southern Khartoum on Thursday, there were “tears of laughter and tears of joy,” humanitarian worker Duaa Tariq told the BBC.
Aid groups have long complained that security threats and roadblocks erected by the warring parties have hampered vital supplies.
To facilitate Thursday’s breakthrough, U.N. agencies and Sudanese community groups negotiated with the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
“There were tears, tears of laughter and joy and tears of great effort and exhaustion organizing this… it was quite a moment,” Ms Tariq, who works with Sudanese humanitarian group Emergency Response Rooms, told the BBC programme “Newsday.” .
The convoy consisted of 28 trucks. Unicef, which sent five of the vehicles, said it was able to deliver “life-saving” food and health supplies to Al Bashayer Hospital and other health facilities in Khartoum.
“Here in Khartoum we urgently need this help. We have waited for this and tried so many ways and methods to get around this, but the only way is to contain the effects of the famine. “Khartoum should receive this aid now,” said Ms. Tariq.
Just a few days earlier, an independent group of food security experts warned that Sudan was sliding into a “widening famine.”.
About half of the population – 24.6 million people – need urgent food assistance, according to the Integrated Food Phase Classification (IPC).
The army and RSF jointly staged a coup in 2021, but 20 months ago a power struggle between their commanders plunged the country into civil war.
In May, US special envoy to Sudan Tom Perriello said up to 150,000 people were estimated to have been killed in the conflict.
More than 11 million people have been forced to leave their homes.
Various mediation efforts to end the conflict between the army and the RSF have so far failed.
