NYALA, SUDAN // A dozen lorries packed with corn, beans, rice and other staples are lined up along the side of a dusty motorway in southern Darfur. These vehicles, which represent the difference between a full stomach and starvation for more than three million people, are sitting idle.
The World Food Programme lorries cannot move without their escort. Finally, three pickups and an armoured personnel carrier full of Nigerian peacekeepers sporting blue helmets and carrying machine guns arrive and the convoy rumbles down the road towards the town of Kas. During a recent spate of attacks in Darfur, the UN's food relief agency has lost more than 100 lorries to hijackers. The increased violence has kept the much-needed food out of the mouths of a vulnerable population displaced from years of fighting. In recent weeks, all food aid has travelled in heavily guarded convoys.
More than 2.5m people have fled their villages during the five-year war in Sudan's vast Darfur region. Most of them live in sprawling camps where they can grow small amounts of food, but not enough to sustain themselves. They depend on donated sorghum, beans, vegetable oil and a corn-soya mixture. The recent insecurity has cut the food supply chain and 50,000 needy Darfuris went without food aid in July. In August, the WFP cut food rations by 50 per cent for all three million people the organisation feeds. The rations have since been increased to 75 per cent, but people are still getting less than the minimum daily nutritional requirements.
This time of year is known as the "hunger gap" period just before the harvest when the population normally runs out of food from last year's harvest. Darfuris count on the food aid to sustain them until they can harvest their crops, and the attacks on food lorries have meant that people are going hungry. "Repeated and targeted attacks on the food convoys are making it extraordinarily difficult and dangerous for us to feed hungry people," said Monika Midel, the WFP's deputy representative in Sudan. "Should these attacks continue, the situation will become intolerable, to the point that we will have to suspend operations in some areas of Darfur."
The food lorries are usually hijacked by rebels who either sell the food or use it to resupply their troops. They keep the lorries to use in fighting their war against the government. The drivers are usually not harmed, but there are still 43 WFP drivers unaccounted for and some local drivers are afraid to work for the WFP. "We've had many problems," said Joseph Malish, a local driver who works for the WFP. "I have had friends that have been hijacked. I will be afraid to drive alone because of looting and hijacking on the road."
Malnutrition rates are measured in children, and rations for children have not been cut despite the recent attacks, WFP officials said. It is hard to measure the impact of the insecurity on nutrition, but officials acknowledge that hunger has increased. "I would be sceptical if we could single out one factor for malnutrition if there were evidence of it," said Eddie Rowe, programme co-ordinator for the WFP in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. "But if you have 70 per cent of the population dependent on food aid and you cut the basic food intake, there will be an impact on nutrition."
The WFP is currently operating at what it calls a phase four security level, which is the highest threat level. If the security situation deteriorates any more, the organisation would have to abandon its operations, leaving millions without food. "If WFP suspended operations, the impact would be massive on humanity," Mr Rowe said. "If the fighting continues, we would be having a major humanitarian disaster here. The majority of the people are basically living on the edge."
The government has backed an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed to exterminate whole villages of African tribe members. The villagers have sought protection in the camps, and they said they are too afraid to return to their farms to grow crops. They said they are happy with the food aid they receive, but they also said it is not enough. "The food is some but not much," said Abdula Issa, who lives in Otash camp near Nyala. "If there is peace, I would like to go back. Then I can grow food for myself."
mbrown@thenational.ae
