Rains disrupting road and rail transport in Darfur

Torrential rains have seriously disrupted road and rail transport in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, trapping food trucks in thick mud and derailing a train carrying supplies, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said. WFP said planes it was using to drop food into areas that were hard to reach, had also been delayed, in some cases, by 24 hours. Whenever it rained, the airstrip at El-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, became unsuitable for heavy aircraft and Antonov-12 planes had been prevented from landing there before 2.00 pm (11.00 GMT), the agency added. “West Darfur is the worst affected by the heavy rains - big thunderstorms that are pouring down on people living without proper shelter or drainage,” Peter Smerdon, WFP Information Officer told IRIN. “If this continues, there could be a significant delay in delivering the food.” Smerdon said the rains had not only affected the delivery of food to towns in West Darfur, but had also hampered delivery outside towns like Al-Geneina. “Going to Mourni, for example, is a problem. During the dry season we used to go through desert, but now we have to wade through mud,” he told IRIN. “Our target is 1.2 million people. In July, we reached 951,000. We are intensifying food air-drops because it is quite efficient, although it is very expensive,” Smerdon added. “The food is dropped from 700 ft and the people distribute it.” WFP has commenced phase two of its air-drop operation, which will try to reach several areas beyond El-Geneina, targeting nearly 140,000 displaced people. A total of 72,000 people have already been provided with 1,832 mt of food since air-drops began on 1 August, including 3,000 in areas held by the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) in Kutum province, North Darfur. Another five distributions in SLA-held parts of Kutum were being planned from this weekend. “With roads cut by swollen wadis [dry river beds that flood during the rains], delivering food by air has become the only option in some areas of Darfur, particularly the far west around the town of El-Geneina,” WFP said. According to WFP, the rains had continued to play havoc with Darfur's severely limited and overstretched surface transport network. “Reports continue to be received of trucks struggling to negotiate roads turned to mud by heavy rain. On 25 August, six of the 21 all-terrain trucks became trapped in thick sand on the road between El-Obeid and El-Fasher,” it said. “It took 10 hours to dig them out.” In mid-August, heavy rain caused the railway line between El-Obeid and Nyala to buckle, resulting in the derailment of a train carrying food. As a result, the line was closed for four days, WFP added. The UN agency, which is appealing for more funds to meet the needs in the region, stressed that it had only US $125 million out of the $204 million it required for its operations in Sudan until the end of 2004, a shortfall of 39 percent. A special operation for logistics support, for example, had received just $11 million of the $36 million it required, WFP said.