Sudan Opens Chad Border Crossing for Humanitarian Aid

In recent days, the Sudanese military government announced the opening of the Adre border crossing between Chad and Sudan to allow for greater delivery of humanitarian aid to Sudan's population. The opening comes after several months of pressure to do so from the UN and other humanitarian organizations..A "Vital" Crossing.The opening of the Adre crossing, which is on Chad's border with Sudan's West Darfur state, is hoped to help drastically with the admittance of humanitarian aid to Sudan. The crossing, of course, has a direct path to Darfur, which is among the worst hit regions in the Sudan War..Darfur has been a hot-point of the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF; the Sudanese military government) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Darfur has faced various crises and conflicts for many years, and thus the region was already reliant on humanitarian aid when the war began in April of last year..The Sudanese government had resisted opening the border with Chad for several months of the war. Eventually Sudan relented, and opened the Tine crossing, providing limited access for humanitarian organizations to enter Sudan through Chad, a direct land route..Tine has proven insufficient to facilitate the large entry of humanitarian aid into Sudan, however. As such, the UN, US, and various humanitarian organizations called upon the Sudanese government to open Adre as well..Sudan, until now, had refused this, claiming that the crossing was being used to smuggle weapons to the RSF. On August 6th they brought this accusation to a meeting of the UN Security Council, claiming that the crossing had been used previously to smuggle in weapons and equipment for the RSF under the guise of trucks of aid supplies..The Tine crossing has recently experienced heavy rains in the area, which have threatened its safety and made it a suboptimal crossing location..With Adre now open, this issue should, ideally, be circumvented..Mediators, including the US, African Union, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Egypt, the UAE, and the UN, in ongoing peace talks for the Sudan War in Geneva, Switzerland, have welcomed the opening of the crossing. The US Special Envoy to Sudan, Tom Perriello, stated the opening was "a vital move to save lives and prevent the spread of famine" and served as a "critical step" in addressing Sudan's spiraling humanitarian crisis.."These constructive decisions by both parties will enable the entry of aid needed to stop the famine, address food insecurity and respond to immense humanitarian needs in Darfur and beyond." -An excerpt of a joint statement from the mediators of the Geneva talks.The SAF has refused to participate in the peace talks in Geneva, demanding an RSF withdrawal from urban areas and protesting the attendance of the UAE, who they accuse of supplying the RSF..The RSF has sent a delegation, however, and alongside the Sudanese government's opening of the Adre crossing has been promises from the RSF to expand cooperation with humanitarian organizations and better facilitate the delivery of aid. Whether they will genuinely commit to these promises remains to be seen, however..An Expanding Crisis.The RSF's promises and the Adre crossing's opening come just over two weeks after the IPC (integrated food security phase classification) had declared a state of famine, IPC level 5, in several areas of North Darfur. Sudan has been suffering from an extensive humanitarian crisis that has practically fallen out of control as the war has continued..Presently, approximately 25 million people in Sudan, over half of the nation's population, are suffering from acute hunger. Millions of these people have gone without aid entirely, while those who receive aid do not receive enough..The delivery of aid by the UN and other groups has been extremely complicated by the war, which has cut some areas off entirely. One such place is El Fasher in North Darfur, where approximately 800,000 people are believed to be essentially trapped within the city as the SAF and the RSF vie for control over the city. Between the beginning of the year and the beginning of the RSF's siege upon the city in May, only 39 aid trucks had entered the city..Since the RSF's attack began, it has been cut off from aid..The UN has been sounding alarms that the hunger situation throughout Sudan is likely to enter into a famine if it is not addressed. However, it has been unable to sufficiently address the crisis..The UN faces a continual funding shortage, a lack of access to some of the worst-hit areas (in particular, Darfur), persistent bureaucratic impediments (such as issues attaining certifications for the entry of aid and aid workers), and general insecurity that make aid delivery difficult..Some of these issues have seen improvement in recent months, however they remain to be pressing issues that interrupt aid delivery..Sudan's hunger issues are worsened by the mass internal displacement the nation is facing. Approximately 10.7 million people in Sudan are internally displaced, representing the world's largest internal displacement crisis..The UN has stated the only way to truly prevent famine is an end to the war, however this is, of course, yet to happen.