GENEVA (Reuters) – U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Wednesday he was working on obtaining commitments by the warring parties in Sudan to protecting humanitarian assistance to ensure it can be delivered to those in need.
“We will still require agreements and arrangements to allow for movement of staff and supplies,” he told reporters via video link from Port Sudan. “We will need to have agreement at the highest level and very publicly and we will need to deliver those commitments into local arrangements that can be depended on.”
The conflict in Sudan has created a humanitarian crisis, with about 100,000 people forced to flee to neighbouring countries, according to the United Nations.
Aid deliveries have been held up in a country where about one-third of people already relied on humanitarian assistance. A broader disaster could be in the making as refugees from Sudan cross into its impoverished neighbours.
Griffiths said he had been told by the World Food Programme that six of their trucks travelling to Darfur were looted en route despite insurances of safety and security.
There was no immediate comment from WFP.
“It’s a volatile environment, so we need those commitments,” Griffiths said.
“It’s not as if we’re asking for the moon. We’re asking for the movement of humanitarian supplies, of people. We do this in every other country, even without ceasefires. It’s a traditional humanitarian enterprise to go where others don’t.”
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Cécile Mantovani; editing by Matthias Williams, Alexandra Hudson)
