Khartoum, the United Nations suspends food aid and is immediately on alert for looting, bombs are not the only risk

ROME (DIRE agency) – Food supplies have been blocked due to fighting between the army and paramilitaries that has been going on in Sudan since last Saturday. And this – sources in Khartoum report – risks aggravating a humanitarian emergency, as well as encouraging looting of houses or commercial establishments. Testimonies were given after the World Food Programme (Pam/Wfp) has suspended its food distribution operations in the country. The decision, communicated yesterday, followed the killing of three employees of the organization. The victims, said the executive director of WFP, Cindy McCain, were shot to death while they were at work in the town of Kabkabiya, in the western region of Darfur. According to World Food Programmea plane used by the Organization was “significantly damaged” during an exchange of gunfire between opposing sides while on the runway of Khartoum International Airport.

Hunger, desperation, looting. “WFP is committed to assisting the Sudanese population in a situation of serious food insecurity – McCain said – but it cannot do so if the safety of operators and partners is not guaranteed. We are on the third day of fighting and the situation does not seem improve – they say from Khartoum – there has been no electricity for 24 hours and we hope that the diesel will last a few days to make the generator work”. If this state of things were to continue even for just a week, it would be fatal that the looting of desperate people would begin, because with hunger any form of self-control is immediately destroyed, so much so that, in such a situation, bombing becomes a secondary concern.