In Sudan, while the fighting intensifies around the town of El-Fasher, in North Darfur, humanitarian actors are trying to send aid to the populations, and in particular to the displaced in the Zamzam camp, just 10 km from the besieged town of El-Fasher.
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With our special correspondent, back from Adré, Alexandra Brangeon
Humanitarian aid leaves from the border town of Adré, in Chad, where all UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are based.
This week, while UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot were in Adré, eleven trucks were able to cross the border.
In total, 500 tonnes of humanitarian aid left the border town of Adré this week, heading to Darfur. Among these trucks, three of them headed towards North Darfur and in particular towards the Zamzam camp where more than 500,000 displaced people live.
Famine was officially declared there. For Antony Spalton, from Unicef, the priority is to assist mothers and children suffering from malnutrition: “ The needs are enormous. For children alone, there are five million children in need of assistance and more than 240,000 children who are severely malnourished. The difficulty is to send large quantities of therapeutic food. »
The challenge for these UN agencies is the volume of aid to transport, logistics and access.
“ We leave here, and we go to El-Geneina, Zalindi, Fangasuk, Tawila before arriving in Zamzam. There are hundreds of kilometers, dozens of checkpoints and, each time, we have to discuss and secure passage. All trucks have to stay together, so if one breaks down, everyone has to wait “, explains Faith Kasina, UNHCR spokesperson for Sudan.
From Adré, these trucks can take up to two weeks to travel the approximately 700 km to reach the Zamzam camp.
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