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GENEVA —U.N. aid agencies welcome the opening of the Adre border crossing with Chad, which, they say will allow desperately needed humanitarian assistance to flow to millions of people who have been trapped in Sudan's conflict hot spots for months with limited access to food, medicine and other essential relief.
The decision by Sudan's military to reopen this crucial border crossing comes as aid agencies say they are racing against time to save the lives of millions of people at risk of starvation and deadly disease outbreaks.
The World Food Program calls Sudan the world's largest hunger crisis, noting that 25.6 million people are "in acute hunger."
"That is 54% of the population. So, that basically means that one in two Sudanese is not able to put a basic meal on their plate every day, are struggling every day just to eat," Leni Kinzli, WFP Sudan spokesperson, told journalists Friday in Geneva.
Speaking from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, she said that about 755,000 people are in the highest stage of food insecurity, "catastrophic hunger," which basically means they have run out of all options and are surviving in whatever way that they can - "eating leaves off trees, eating grass."
"In fact, we have received reports of people dying of hunger," she said noting, "Famine was confirmed just two weeks ago in Zamzam IDP [internally displaced people] camp," which is around 12 kilometers away from El Fasher, North Darfur's capital, "where fighting continues to intensify week by week with more people fleeing."
Kinzli added that the opening of the critical humanitarian corridor through Adre will enable the delivery of aid into Sudan's conflict-rattled Darfur region. She said WFP was "immediately" assembling vital food and nutrition supplies to be transported across the Adre corridor over the coming weeks.
"We need to see trucks moving across this border every single day to get a consistent flow of aid into the region," she said, noting that enough food for half a million people was being loaded, and was ready to go to famine areas in the North, Central and West Darfur states "as soon as official government communication and clearances are received."
Besides the Zamzam IDP camp, the U.N. Famine Review Committee recently reported that 13 other areas are on the brink of famine, largely in Darfur, Kordofan, Khartoum, and Gezira.
Aid agencies warn heavy rainfall and floods are worsening the already devastating food security situation in Sudan. They say floods are forcing more people from their homes; that broken bridges, and muddy roads are cutting communities off from vital assistance.
This natural disaster follows months of insecurity, which have limited humanitarian aid from reaching beleaguered communities.
The World Health Organization reports access to health care has been constrained because of insecurity in the region. This has caused a shortage of medicines, medical supplies and health workers - with those remaining "not being paid."
"And we are seeing many, many attacks on health care," said Dr. Margaret Harris, WHO spokesperson. "In the conflict hot spots, 70% to 80% of the hospitals are non-functional. So, people are dying simply from a lack of access to basic and essential health care and medication."
The nonprofit group Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders, warns that the last hospital in El Fasher risks closure. It says the last MSF-supported Saudi hospital - the last remaining public hospital in the city "with the capacity to treat the wounded and perform surgery" - has been attacked, "causing extensive damage and leaving the facility only partially functioning."
If the hospital is hit again and becomes non-functional, MSF warns "there will be nowhere left for the injured to seek care and the death toll will soar."
While WHO also welcomes the Adre crossing's opening, spokesperson Harris observed that nothing can be done to help people in dire need unless they can be reached.
She said people who are malnourished or starving are at risk of very grave health consequences.
"Anything that is a mild infection in somebody with good nutrition, a good immune system, becomes a catastrophic illness in somebody who is malnourished, particularly a child," she said. "And they can die very, very quickly from what would be a minor infection if they are malnourished."
WHO says thousands of cases of cholera, measles, dengue, meningitis and other diseases, including hundreds of deaths, have been reported in numerous states, as well as 1.7 million malaria cases, including 173 deaths from malaria.
"Confirmation of all these cases is very challenging because we do not have functional public health laboratories. So, again, those numbers are highly likely to be an underestimate," Harris said.
The decision by the Sudanese government to open the Adre crossing followed the start of U.S.-sponsored peace talks Thursday in Geneva. Aid agencies see these talks as offering an opportunity for the international community to address the widespread obstruction of aid delivery by the warring parties.
"It is critical that warring parties leave the battlefield and show up at the negotiating table, so we can get food moving quickly to hunger-struck communities across the country in time before it is too late," Kinzli said.
A delegation from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, is present in Geneva. However, the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, so far has not sent a delegation.