“The UN WFP has managed to bring desperately needed food and nutrition supplies into Darfur; the first WFP assistance to reach the war-wracked region in months,” said Leni Kinzli, WFP Communications Officer in Sudan.

The convoys crossed into Sudan from Chad in late March carrying enough food and nutrition supplies for 250,000 people facing acute hunger in North, West and Central Darfur. 

Constant flow needed

Despite this welcome development, the UN agency spokesperson warned that unless the people of Sudan receive a constant flow of aid “via all possible humanitarian corridors from neighbouring countries and across battle lines”, the country’s hunger catastrophe will only worsen.

Last month, WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain warned that the war in Sudan risks triggering the world’s worst hunger crisis unless families in Sudan and those who have fled to South Sudan and Chad receive desperately needed food assistance. 

This requires unfettered access, faster clearances, and funds to deliver humanitarian response that meets the huge needs of civilians impacted by the devastating war.

Humanitarian stakes

Securing safe and constant aid access to the Darfurs “has been extremely challenging”, WFP’s Ms. Kinzli explained, adding that the situation has been complicated further by the decision of the head of the Sudanese armed forces based in Port Sudan to refuse permission to humanitarians seeking to reach the Darfurs from Chad.

Delayed response

“Fierce fighting, lack of security and lengthy clearances by the warring parties have led to delays in the distribution of this assistance to people in need,” Ms. Kinzli insisted. “WFP and our partners urgently need security guarantees and deconfliction so the supplies in North Darfur can be distributed to people who are struggling to find even one basic meal a day.”

The UN agency reported on Friday that 37 trucks carrying 1,300 tons of supplies crossed last week into West Darfur from Adre in Chad – and that food distributions were underway in West and Central Darfur.

Last year, WFP supported one million people in West and Central Darfur with food transported via Chad’s Adre crossing.

Another 16 trucks with around 580 tons of supplies entered North Darfur from Chad’s Tina border crossing on 23 March, WFP said. 

An additional six trucks with 260 metric tons of food reached the area from Port Sudan a few days later – the first aid delivery to be transported across conflict lines in six months. 

But the UN agency noted that “fierce fighting, lack of security, and lengthy clearances by the warring parties” had led to delays in the distribution of this assistance. 

Geneina in crisis

“There is a lack of clarity whether we will be able to continue and regularly use the cross border [route] from Adre into West Darfur, which is so critical because West Darfur is among the most food-insecure areas in Sudan,” the WFP official noted.

This is especially the case in Geneina, capital of West Darfur, where the UN agency said that “many vulnerable women” had reportedly stormed one of the distribution points “out of desperation because there was not enough food for everyone”.

Over the last four to five years, Geneina is also the place “where we see the highest levels of hunger in the lean season”, Ms. Kinzli said.

Sudan’s war between rival generals which erupted last April has driven hunger to record levels, with 18 million people facing acute malnutrition. In Darfur, 1.7 million people are already enduring emergency levels of hunger – IPC4 – according to global food security experts.

“If we aren’t able to use that specific corridor (from Adre to West Darfur) and continue to use it and scale up via that corridor…what is going to happen to the people of West Darfur who are bearing the brunt of this conflict, who are in an unimaginable situation?” WFP’s Ms. Kinzli said.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UN News.

Scientists in the Sahel are finding quality groundwater sources — thanks to a nuclear technique and a decade of support and training from the IAEA.

Water resources in Africa are under pressure due to growing water demand, water quality degradation and climate change. On the continent, more than 41 groundwater aquifers are shared by two or more countries, making a joint approach to protection beneficial.

To strengthen characterization, management and monitoring of groundwater resources in Africa, the IAEA is supporting  African experts to use nuclear techniques such as Isotope hydrology. By analysing naturally occurring isotopes (a type of atom) in groundwater, scientists can assess the age, vulnerability and sustainability of water resources. The analysis of nitrogen isotopes in water can also be used to work out the source of pollutants which threaten aquifers, strengthening water security and resilience planning.

The IAEA is equipped with a state-of-the-art Isotope Hydrology Laboratory, which maps water and provides scientific insights for the sustainable management of water resources like rivers, lakes, and underground aquifers.

Through its technical cooperation programme, the IAEA has been providing training, support for academic research and equipment to African scientists in the Sahel region, which has particularly scarce water resources and is dependent on groundwater.

Following earlier projects,  experts from the 13 countries in the Sahel can now better characterize shared groundwater resources in five basins in support of sustainable socioeconomic development. The current project builds on a decade of work by countries in the Sahel region, supported by the IAEA, to address water scarcity and support its transboundary management. It is now being expanded to include shared basins in the south of the continent and to introduce the use of nitrogen isotopes for water quality studies.

Scientists participating in the project have already confirmed the presence of a large amount of quality groundwater in the Sahel basins using isotope hydrology. This is a key discovery, considering the important role that groundwater can play in water supply for the region.

The IAEA has recently provided the Applied Hydrology and Environmental Geology Laboratory of the University of Lomé, Togo, with a laser isotope analyser used to measure stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in water samples. The laboratory is operated by Togolese scientist Goumpoukini Boguido.

“Today, it is thanks to the support of the IAEA in my training that our laboratory produces high-quality analytical results and can conduct research projects and provide good quality analytical services even outside Togo”, said Boguido, who completing his doctoral degree with the support of the IAEA.

Scientists participating in the project have already confirmed a large amount of quality groundwater in the Sahel basins using isotope hydrology. This is a key discovery, considering the important role that groundwater can play in water supply for the region.

Through South–South cooperation, Boguido carries out physico-chemical and isotopic analyses of water samples collected in various parts of the region. He also supervises students at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels.

Head of the HydroGeosciences and Reservoirs Laboratory (LHGR) at the University of N’Djaména in Chad, Abdallah Mahamat Nour, said the IAEA technical cooperation project had helped his work as a postdoctoral fellow.

“My postdoctoral project has made it possible to make significant progress in understanding the water resources of the Lake Chad basin,” said Mahamat Nour. “The support has enabled me to set up a number of tools and equipment that are now very useful for the LHGR laboratory activities”.  Mahamat Nour also supervises the research work of several Chadian IAEA fellows, guiding them in their research projects using isotope hydrology.

Through an IAEA postgraduate programme for doctoral, master’s and postdoctoral fellows, students are learning to better characterize water samples to map groundwater resources, leading to regional self-reliance in isotope hydrology. The programme has enrolled 60 students, among whom 21 are women. Seven students have already completed the course and graduated.

Collaborative scientific publications involving authors from the participating countries are appearing in scholarly journals – an excellent example of South-South cooperation.

Building on the initial phase of the current project, it is now expanding its scope from the Sahel to include other parts of Africa. The programme will continue to support the existing network of countries in the Sahel region and will seek to increase coverage to include Member States in the south of the continent sharing water resources, such as the Orange River, the Medium Zambezi Aquifer System, the Inkomati-Maputo and the Greater Okavango River Basins.

The IAEA has implemented a series of large-scale projects on the Sahel region’s water resources assessment and management through its technical cooperation programme. The projects support the sustainable management of shared groundwater resources in the region, contributing to regional and local socioeconomic development in line with Sustainable Development Goal 6 and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Pam Tshwete, has assured households affected by fires that destroyed several structures in the City of Cape Town that their building materials will be delivered over the next few days. Deputy Minister Tshwete met with community members in Doornbach and Joe Slovo informal settlements. 

About seven fire incidents were reported in the City of Cape Town over the Easter Weekend. As a result, over 340 informal structures were destroyed leaving over 740 households without shelter. 

“We are at an advanced stage to procure the building materials to enable the affected households to rebuild their structures. We have directed our team that has been dispatched here to work around the clock to ensure that we deliver as expected of us and as quickly as possible by Monday, latest Tuesday”, said Deputy Minister Tshwete.

The Department of Human Settlements, in coordination with the Departments of Social Development and Home Affairs and the Non-Governmental Organisations, to help return the lives of the affected communities to normalcy.

Accordingly, the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, who was also attending to fire victims indicated that the South African Social Security Agency was already on the ground to provide much-needed relief. She added that a process was underway to secure uniforms for the affected households with school-going children.

Regarding the government’s commitment to improve the living conditions of informal settlement dwellers, Minister Tshwete implored the City of Cape Town to effectively use their budget allocation, including the recent additional R70,5 million by the National Treasury, towards the upgrading of informal settlements by providing much needed basic services such as water and sanitation.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of South African Government.

The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has undertaken the following changes to the regional composition of his government.

Effectively, immediately, the Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Stephen Yakubu, will assume the role of Upper West Regional Minister.

Similarly, the Upper West Regional Minister, Hafiz Bin Salih, will become the new Upper East Regional Minister.

These changes are part of President Akufo-Addo’s ongoing efforts to ensure effective governance across the country, and has tasked the Ministers to work tirelessly to promote the welfare and development of the people of Upper West and Upper East regions, respectively.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Presidency, Republic of Ghana.