WFP: Violence shuts crucial aid corridor into Sudan's Darfur

Violence around the city of al-Fashir in Darfur, Sudan, has blocked a recently opened humanitarian corridor from Chad and time is running out to prevent starvation in the vast region, the UN World Food Program said on Friday.

Attacks around al-Fashir, the Sudanese army's last holdout in Darfur and home to some 1.6 million residents, have led to dire warnings of a new wave of mass displacement and inter-communal conflict in Sudan's year-old war.

Aid officials say both sides have been looting aid or blocking it from reaching areas where starvation is taking hold, contributing to a humanitarian crisis.

The latest violence around al-Fashir halted aid convoys coming through Chad's Tine border crossing, while restrictions by authorities aligned with the army were preventing deliveries of assistance through the only other aid corridor from Chad at Adre, WFP said.

Only small quantities of aid have entered al-Fashir during the war, the sole army-approved conduit for shipments to other parts of Darfur.


Reuters