Insecurity hampers WFP food deliveries to Darfur

The number of people in the western Sudanese region of Darfur who received food from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in October dropped by nearly 175,000 compared to the previous month as a result of increasing violence there, a WFP spokesman told IRIN on Tuesday. "The escalating violence is undermining WFP’s ability to operate effectively across the three states of Darfur," said WFP’s senior spokesperson, Peter Smerdon. "Large pockets of Darfur are closed to UN agencies as 'No-Go' areas, making it impossible for food and other assistance to be provided." Fighting with heavy weapons broke out seven km from Nertiti in West Darfur on 21 October, prompting WFP NGO-partner CARE to suspend distributions in the town. The fighting also stranded a convoy of 22 WFP-contracted trucks bound for nearby Golo. On 30 October, gunmen attacked a convoy of five trucks with a police escort in South Darfur. Five attackers and one policeman were killed. The situation is particularly acute in the mountainous Jebel Marra area, where the three Dafur states meet and in remote northern stretches of North Darfur. "Close to 200,000 IPDs [internally displaced persons] and residents in these places need assistance, but have become inaccessible for UN agencies in recent weeks," Smerdon said. A key factor in the widening instability is the increased rebel activity in the area, which had triggered responses from the Sudanese military, police, as well as militia forces. The latest military tensions have coincided with large movements of cattle and camel herders, intensifying the insecurity in the area. "There is a lot of animosity between these groups, leading to many incidents of animal rustling on either side," Smerdon explained. "Also, poor rains have led to a shortage of grazing and both groups are competing for this scarce resource as cattle-herders are moving north and camel herders are moving south." In Darfur, almost 22 percent of children under the age of five are malnourished and close to half of all families do not have enough food, according to a comprehensive nutrition and food security assessment released by WFP on 26 October. WFP projected that as many as 2.5 million beneficiaries may need approximately 440,000 mt of food assistance by next year. The war in Darfur pits Sudanese government troops and militias allegedly allied to the government against rebels fighting to end what they have called marginalisation and discrimination of the region's inhabitants by the state. The conflict has displaced an estimated 1.45 million people and sent another 200,000 fleeing across the border into Chad.