Speaking to Reuters from Port Sudan, Eddie Rowe, WFP’s country director, said looting was rampant in the country and some reports of theft of WFP supplies were still under investigation.
He added, “We estimated that about 17,000 tons were looted, some in our warehouses and others from trucks… This is equivalent to between 13 to 14 million dollars, in the cost of food alone. Almost every day we receive reports of other looting.”
Rowe’s comments come a day after Martin Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, appealed to both sides of the conflict in Sudan to pledge safe passage for humanitarian aid and staff.
The United Nations said the conflict in Sudan has forced some 100,000 people to flee to neighboring countries and hampered aid deliveries in a country where a third of the population already depends on humanitarian aid.
Rowe said the World Food Program urgently needed to buy more supplies for Sudan.
“We know that if we don’t buy commodities now, we will run out of stock in the next two or three months,” he added.
He added, “We have already started communicating with our donors to see how quickly we can purchase and also deliver in locations that we can reach and where it is relatively safe to provide assistance.”
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