Aid workers in Sudan say fierce fighting, rampant looting and reams of red tape are hampering efforts to deliver vital humanitarian supplies to the millions of people who now rely on a relief effort since a conflict erupted in mid-April.
The United Nations estimates 25 million people, or more than half the population, now need help, up from 16m before the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began fighting.
“Often we cannot move because the warehouse is being looted or because it’s unsafe for our staff to move, or because for the transporter it’s unsafe to go,” said Jean-Nicolas Armstrong Dangelser, emergency co-ordinator for medical aid group MSF.
Truck drivers have sometimes been detained and supplies seized, he said.
Eight aid workers are among the hundreds of people killed in nearly seven weeks of fighting.
“It’s not just the fighting ... it’s also the lootings, the general state of lawlessness which makes things extremely complicated,” said Alyona Synenko, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
At least 162 vehicles have been stolen from aid organisations, while 61 offices and 57 warehouses have been looted, an official from UN humanitarian agency OCHA said.
Sudan’s warring parties fought in the capital yesterday after the collapse of talks to maintain a ceasefire.
Residents of Khartoum and Omdurman across the Nile said the army had resumed air strikes and was using more artillery. But said there was no sign the paramilitary RSF was retreating from streets and homes it had occupied, they said.
The US and Saudi Arabia on Thursday suspended truce talks after a ceasefire they had mediated fell apart, accusing the sides of occupying homes, businesses and hospitals, carrying out air strikes and attacks and executing banned military movements.
The army said yesterday it was “surprised” by the US and Saudi decision to suspend the negotiations after it had made proposals for implementing the agreement, blaming the RSF for breaching the truce. The RSF yesterday blamed the army for the talks’ collapse, accusing it of repeated violations.
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