CAIRO/DUBAI (Reuters) -Sudan’s sovereign council said on Thursday it would allow the use of the Adre border crossing with Chad for three months – a move long waited by aid agencies seeking to send aid into areas of the Darfur region that are threatened with famine.
Global monitors say that more than 6 million people face food insecurity across Darfur, which is mostly controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the army’s rival in a 16-month war, and that famine has taken hold in North Darfur’s Zamzam camp.
The army-aligned government blocked aid deliveries in February through the Adre crossing into territory controlled by the RSF, alleging that it was being used for weapons deliveries.
U.N. experts found earlier this year that allegations that the RSF had received weapons deliveries from the United Arab Emirates through Chad were credible. The UAE and RSF deny this.
Aid agencies have said that the prohibition on using the crossing, physically controlled by the RSF, is stranding thousands of tonnes of aid in Chad, as the army’s only approved crossing into the region, al-Tina, has been inundated by heavy rains.
Deliveries through other approved points, including the five crossings designated by the government’s de facto capital in Port Sudan, take longer and involve crossing multiple battle lines, aid agencies say.
Othamn Khojali, deputy head of Sudan’s Humanitarian Aid Commision, said on Thursday that calls for a Security Council decision to disregard the prohibition on Adre were part of a “political agenda” to violate its sovereignty and allow “anything” into the country.
The Sovereign Council’s decision appeared timed to pre-empt such calls, particularly during talks in Switzerland that aim to end the war and facilitate humanitarian aid, which the army is not attending.
Khojali also denied that famine was taking place in the country, but blamed the RSF, which has looted farms, markets, and aid warehouses, for a deficit in food. The RSF denies this.
Global monitors say that across the country, half the population of about 50 million face food insecurity.
(Reporting by Nafisa Eltahir and Khalid AbdelazizWriting By Enas AlashrayEditing by Christina Fincher and Frances Kerry)
