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UN reports first aid convoy to Jabal Awalia and warns of visa delays hampering deliveries in Sudan
Summary
The World Food Programme and partners have delivered convoys into areas south of Khartoum and plan expanded assistance, but the UN said visa delays for humanitarian personnel have severely constrained operations.
The UN spokesperson, Spokesperson of the United Nations Secretariat, said the World Food Programme (WFP) reported that one of its teams successfully reached the greater Khartoum area and coordinated with local authorities to scale up assistance.
The spokesperson said a convoy of 14 trucks carrying more than 280 metric tons of food and nutrition supplies arrived in Jabal Awalia, south of Khartoum; that delivery was the first to Jabal Awalia since December. He said the initial eight convoys will carry assistance for about 23,000 people and that additional trucks were en route. WFP aims to expand deliveries to nearly 1,000,000 people over the coming months.
The spokesperson also reported cross-border aid flows in March: 56 trucks carrying more than 5,600 metric tons of assistance entered Sudan via the Adre crossing from Chad and a separate 46 trucks transported more than 4,000 metric tons to other parts of the country. Yesterday, humanitarian partners delivered 1,700 metric tons of emergency food to Tawila in North Darfur State, and a local partner launched water trucking to support some 10,000 newly displaced people in El Fasher.
However, the spokesperson warned that humanitarian access is being “severely undermined” by bureaucratic obstacles, including marked delays in visa approvals for humanitarian personnel. He said only 16% of visa applications were approved in March, down from roughly 50% in the prior month, and that continued declines could “seriously affect life-saving operations.”
The spokesperson urged all parties to facilitate safe and unhindered humanitarian access and to allow operations to scale up so organisations can reach people facing acute food insecurity and other urgent needs.
