The Sudanese authorities loyal to the military are blocking the distribution of humanitarian aid in Darfur, which is strongly criticized by humanitarian organizations and the US government, as the humanitarian situation is described as catastrophic for the population, already on the brink of starvation.

“Children and infants are dying of hunger and malnutrition, there will be a huge humanitarian impact” and the death toll is in danger of increasing dramatically, a member of an international non-governmental organization operating in this area of ​​western Sudan told AFP yesterday, asking not to be named. not to jeopardize his mission.

The UN and the US have denounced the blocking of desperately needed aid in Darfur, as a quarter of Sudan’s 48 million people face a catastrophic humanitarian situation.

The war broke out on April 15 between the army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his erstwhile right-hand man, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the head of the dreaded Rapid Support Force (RSF). It has claimed thousands of lives and turned some eight million people into internally displaced persons and refugees, according to the UN.

The DTY is a reincarnation of the Janjaweed, the Arab paramilitary groups that implemented former President Omar al-Bashir’s scorched earth policy in Darfur two decades ago.

DTY controls four of the five capitals of Darfur state, which has been cut off from the rest of the country for months. Most of the humanitarian aid is delivered to Port Sudan, on the Red Sea, where the military regime’s government is based.

UN humanitarian aid reaches Darfur through Chad’s border with Sudan, where “authorities are restricting operations,” Eddie Rowe, the World Food Program’s (WFP) representative in Sudan, recently pointed out.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Friday expressed Washington’s “deep concern” after “(the military’s) recent decision to ban crossing the Chadian border”, as well as the information during which the army “prevents aid from reaching populations in areas controlled by the DTY”.

The State Department also denounced “looting of homes, markets and warehouses with humanitarian aid” by the paramilitaries.

Sudan’s foreign ministry rejected Washington’s “false accusations”, stressing that the Sudan/Chad border is the “main entry point for weapons and equipment” used to commit “atrocities” against Sudanese.

In January, a UN report cited credible evidence that “military support” was being provided to the IDF from the United Arab Emirates, a charge denied by Abu Dhabi.