UN carries out cross-border aid deliveries to Sudan's Darfur

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 4: UN humanitarians have facilitated cross-border deliveries of assistance from Chad into Sudan's Darfur region despite the ongoing conflict, said a UN spokesman on Thursday.

"The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tells us that today it facilitated cross-border deliveries of food items by the World Food Programme from Chad into West Darfur," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

In the coming weeks, UN agencies and partners are hoping to provide additional assistance, especially food, nutrition, health, water, hygiene and sanitation supplies, he said.

UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said cross-border access into the Darfur region represents a key milestone, as the United Nations seeks to access all hard-to-reach areas in Sudan and provide critical humanitarian assistance to people in need, wherever they are, according to the spokesman.

Meanwhile, the UN secretary-general's deputy special representative and resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, is calling for more support for relief efforts immediately, amid the ongoing conflict in the country, said Haq.

During her mission to Gedaref and Kassala in eastern Sudan this week, Nkweta-Salami met people displaced by the conflict and the humanitarian workers. But she noted that the situation remains dire and that additional assistance is urgently needed to meet food, health, and protection needs, said Haq.

The spokesman said the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan is gravely concerned about the severe impact of the fighting between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces on civilians in the Darfur region.

The UN mission strongly condemns the indiscriminate targeting of civilian populations and public facilities by the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias, and is concerned by similar incidents in Central Darfur, he said, adding that the UN mission urges all forces engaged in hostilities to cease military operations immediately and to resume the Jeddah-facilitated talks.

The military conflict in Sudan broke out in mid-April this year.