Report: SalaaMedia
The three-month period specified by the Sudanese government to operate the Adre border crossing between Sudan and Chad ends by mid-November. Dr. Jibril Ibrahim, the Sudanese Minister of Finance, anticipated this date with a tweet on his account. He said, this crossing must be closed immediately until some arrangements are fixed including the presence of a team from the Customs Police, the Standards and Metrology Authority, and the Intelligence Service at the crossing, in addition to placing X-ray scanning devices to facilitate the identification of transit goods. This coincided with statements by government officials that there was no famine in the Darfur region, which indicates the government’s intention to close the crossing again. In this regard, the Sudanese Minister of Agriculture, Abu Bakr Al-Bushra, denied the presence of signs of famine in Sudan. He said, “Everything that is being raised about the existence of famine in Sudan is intended to open the borders and exploit that to bring in weapons and equipment for the Rapid Support Forces and pave the way for the entry of foreign forces, and this harms Sudan’s sovereignty.” This comes in light of calls from the international community to keep the crossing open for aid to enter the region, and the World Food Program said that it needs safe access and the flow of aid through all border crossings. In this report, Salaamedia Center monitors amounts of relief received by the states of Darfur through Adre crossing in the period from September 1, 2024, until now, in completion of the monitoring process carried out by the center since the opening of the crossing in the period from August 15 to August 30, 2024. In addition to researching the effects that closing the crossing might have on the humanitarian situation
Statistics
According to a previous Salaamedia report, 1,814 metric tons of humanitarian aid was transported on 59 trucks through the Adre crossing between August 20 and 30, 2024, to help about 195 thousand people, equivalent to 45% of the total number of people in the fifth stage of famine in the Darfur region. Since September 1, 2024, about 3,000 and 100 metric tons have arrived in two batches by the World Food Program, in addition to 23 trucks, 16 trucks, and 25 trucks of unknown origin. The United Nations indicated that the total amount of aid that has arrived since the opening of the crossing amounted to 200 trucks, targeting about 615,000 people. However, in its last update on October 24, 2024, the World Food Program estimated the number of beneficiaries of total aid since the opening of the crossing at approximately 360,000 people in the region.
The Obstacles
Within two and a half months of the opening of Adre crossing, UN and international organizations faced many obstacles to bring humanitarian aid into the region, including the natural conditions resulting from the floods sweeping away internal roads in the region, in addition to the difficulty for employees of humanitarian organizations to obtain entry visas from the Sudanese embassy in Chad, as he stated An official in the state of South Darfur told Salaamedia – who preferred to withhold his name – that a delegation from an international organization was forced to enter Darfur without visas. This was confirmed by the report of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid in Sudan (OCHA): “Recently, travel permits for aid workers have not been issued as quickly as required, especially in areas not under government control, where many visas for the United Nations and international non-governmental organizations are still pending.” In the same context of the obstacles placed by the warring parties in Sudan, official authorities in Port Sudan issued orders confronting a United Nations delegation on its way to the states of South and East Darfur, after completing a tour in the states of West and Central Darfur, demanding that it leave Sudanese territory. Meanwhile, the American envoy to Sudan, Tom Perriello, accused the Sudanese authorities of obstructing the arrival of 90% of the emergency relief materials coming to those affected by the war in the country, and at the same time stressed that starvation cannot be a weapon of war. On the other hand, Matthew Miller, spokesman for the US State Department, expressed his country’s concern about what he described as “bureaucracy that prevents humanitarian aid from reaching the Sudanese.” He stressed that unhindered access of humanitarian aid to Sudan is crucial to saving lives.
Extension calls
As the end of the period for allowing humanitarian aid to pass through Adre crossing approaches, calls are rising for the necessity of renewing the grace period so that organizations and United Nations agencies can provide relief to civilians facing the risk of starvation in Darfur due to the war the country is witnessing. Calls for extension. The United Group, which includes the United States, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Switzerland, the United Nations and the African Union, sent a call to the Sudanese Sovereignty Council to maintain the Adre crossing to ensure the continued flow of relief. While Mr. Anthony Blinken, US Secretary of State, urged the Sudanese authorities to extend the opening of the border crossing after next November 15.
In contrast, Abu Bakr al-Bishri, the Sudanese Minister of Agriculture, claims that the 755,000 citizens who are at risk of famine in Sudan do not constitute a large percentage compared to the country’s total population. Therefore, This cannot be described as famine, he said. But comparing this number to the number of those falling under the classification of the fifth stage according to the interim classification, which amounts to 430 thousand people, they represent about 60% of the total of 755 thousand that the Minister of Agriculture mentioned in his statement!
The Adre crossing has greatly contributed to saving the lives of many civilians in various locations in the Darfur region from the danger of death from hunger, despite the insufficient assistance for all those affected. However, as the remaining period for closing the crossing approached, according to the agreement to open the crossings, official calls came to the fore to close the crossing to the entry of humanitarian aid. The calls to close the crossing come under the pretext of the expiration of the deadline or claims for the entry of weapons. Or this may be related to government intentions to impose control on crossings and the movement of materials. In a move that is morally inconsistent with the scale of the tragedy and the danger threatening the lives of millions of civilians in the region. These claims appear as if the government seeks to use hunger as a weapon of war. On the other hand, the international community anticipated these claims, stressing the utmost importance of keeping the crossing open for the flow of humanitarian aid, and accordingly, War, natural factors, the cessation of agricultural production and the lack of sources of income, in addition to the closure of the crossing to aid, leave civilians with no choice but to die.