The UN recently issued yet another report on humanitarian conditions in Darfur, noting in a long catalog of obstruction and harassment that for more than four months the Khartoum regime refused to allow entry to 5,000 metric tons of sugar bound for Darfur. What is the role of sugar in food aid to Darfur? Why is this obstruction of particular note? There is tremendous fear within the humanitarian community of expanding malnutrition, especially among children. In a desperate attempt to sustain children under five through the rainy season that ended earlier this month, UN World Food Program and nongovernmental humanitarian organizations focused with extraordinary intensity on this most vulnerable population group. A key part of their effort was a “Blanket Supplementary Feeding Program,” using as its primary tool a specially designed “premix” of foods. What goes into this “premix”? Corn-soya blend, dried skimmed milk…and sugar.
Part 2 and 3 of Alex de Waal’s series ‘How Genocides End”
Alex de Waal
Darfur civil society supports ICC and its Chief Prosecutor