Food aid reaches more people in Sudan's Darfur

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Wednesday that it had delivered food aid to more people in Sudan's western region of Darfur in last month.

"Although some areas of Darfur remain inaccessible, the WFP successfully distributed food aid to a total of 2.9 million conflict-affected people in Darfur in September," the organization said in a statement.

The number of people not reached has been dropping steadily from 470,000 in July to 355,000 in August and 224,000 now, the statement said, adding that 139,000 people had not get any food aid for four months.

The statement attributed the improvement to the strong cooperation among the humanitarian aid community in accessing and organizing the delivery.

"Despite the difficult security situation, the WFP and our partners in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were able to take advantage of windows of opportunity to deliver long-awaited food aid to parts of North Darfur. We are working hard to reach those who remain cut off," said Kenro Oshidari, WFP Representative in Sudan.

The newly reached people, who live in the northernmost part of Darfur, were given a double ration food to cover the months of September and October when the WFP could not guarantee the regular access for food deliveries due to the unstable situation.

"The situation is especially serious because we are in the annual hunger season just before the harvest," Oshidari said.

"In a volatile situation, food aid is vital to stability," he said, calling on all parties in the conflict to recognize the vital work of humanitarians to provide food, water, health and other urgently needed services to the civilian population.

Source: Xinhua