Activities were suspended after the death of three agency employees
1 May. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The World Food Program (WFP) has announced this Monday that it is ending the suspension of its mission in Sudan, given the worsening of the crisis in the country due to the fighting that broke out in mid-April between the Army and the paramilitaries. Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The executive director of the organization, Cindy McCain, has indicated that “the WFP immediately withdraws the temporary suspension established after the tragic death of teammates” and has warned that the “crisis” in Sudan “pushes millions of people to the hunger”.
“WFP will quickly resume our programs to deliver the vital assistance that many people desperately need right now,” he said in a message posted on his official Twitter account.
WFP operations in Sudan were suspended following the deaths on 15 April of three of its employees in Kabkabiya, North Darfur state. He also confirmed that a WFP-administered United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) plane also “suffered significant damage at Khartoum International Airport.”
According to a recent report published by the WFP, 34 percent of households are classified as “food insecure” in the first quarter of 2022 in South Sudan. Thus, some 15 million people, including refugees, suffer from acute food insecurity.
McCain’s announcement comes after the Sudanese Armed Forces and RSF confirmed on Sunday a 72-hour extension for the humanitarian ceasefire that expired at midnight. Both sides have exchanged accusations about violations of the truce.
The hostilities broke out on April 15 in the context of an increase in tensions around the integration of the RSF –led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias ‘Hemedti’, who is also vice president of the Sovereign Transition Council– in the within the Armed Forces, a key part of an agreement signed in December to form a new civilian government and reactivate the transition.
The talks process began with international mediation after the head of the Army and president of the Sovereign Transition Council, Abdelfatá al Burhan, led a coup in October 2021 that overthrew the then prime minister of unity, Abdalá Hamdok, appointed to the position as a result of contacts between civilians and the military after the April 2019 riot, which ended 30 years of the regime of Omar Hasan al Bashir.
