UN official says more needed to help war-torn Sudan

UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed (2nd-L) visits the Abdullah Naji school for Sudanese displaced children during an official visit in Port Sudan on August 29, 2024. [AFP]

The UN's deputy secretary-general welcomed food aid reaching Sudan but said it is insufficient as she visited a border post in Chad to witness the passage of a humanitarian convoy.

Amina Mohammed, during her visit Friday to the Adre border crossing, also called for a resolution to the fighting in Sudan.

During recent negotiations in Geneva, the warring parties made little progress in ending the fighting but did pledge to allow humanitarian aid to pass through two key border points.

An AFP reporter was able to see a humanitarian convoy cross the border into Sudan's Darfur region during Mohammed's visit.

The World Food Programme said in a communique Thursday that its trucks have transported more than 630 metric tonnes -- enough for nearly 55,000 people -- from Chad into the Darfur region.

Mohammed said during her visit to Adre that this was only "a small amount" of what was needed to fend off the suffering in Sudan.

She said the UN was able to finance about 25 to 30 per cent of the needs, and that "commitments made by governments need to be fulfilled so that we can help the people of the world that are in need."

Fighting erupted in Sudan in April 2023, pitting the national army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Aid groups say the fighting has prevented humanitarian supplies from reaching the 25 million Sudanese facing severe hunger.