US envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello on Monday highlighted a marked improvement in aid delivery to Sudan, where the ongoing war is causing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
“We are pleased with the significant, but gradual, improvement in humanitarian access,” Perriello told reporters in Nairobi, Kenya.
“Several hundred trucks passed through areas that were previously blocked,” he added.
PHOTO DENIS BALIBOUSE, REUTERS ARCHIVES
The American envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello
Since April 2023, Sudan has been the scene of a war between the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo and the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, de facto leader of the country. Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including targeting civilians and blocking humanitarian aid.
Some 26 million people face severe food insecurity, and famine has been declared in the Zamzam camp in Darfur.
The war, the subject of discussions last week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, has left tens of thousands dead and more than ten million people have also been displaced by the fighting or forced to take refuge abroad — one in five Sudanese.
The situation is extremely serious and those who find themselves in the best solution to stop it seem, on the contrary, eager to accelerate
Tom Perriello, US envoy for Sudan
Several rounds of negotiations have failed to end the fighting. Truces concluded at the start of the conflict by the United States and Saudi Arabia have, in particular, not been respected.
Mr. Perriello stressed that even if the war continued, humanitarian access as well as the protection of civilians must be respected, denouncing “the lack of sufficient will” of the opposing camps.
The United States launched discussions on August 14 in Switzerland, in an undisclosed location, to expand humanitarian access and establish a ceasefire, in the presence of the FSR, but without the Sudanese army, which contested the format of the talks.
These discussions, co-sponsored by Saudi Arabia and Switzerland and including in particular the United Arab Emirates, concluded around ten days later, without truce, but with the commitment made by the belligerents to guarantee safe and obstructing humanitarian workers on two key routes.