United Nations plane lands at Khartoum airport for first time since war began

By AFP

A United Nations flight landed at Khartoum airport on Thursday, the first since Sudan’s nearly three-year war began, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the country said, calling it “a big deal” for aid workers trying to reach millions of Sudanese in need.

Since April 2023, Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a devastating conflict that has killed tens of thousands and displaced some 11 million people.

Khartoum, which was overrun by the RSF early in the conflict, has slowly begun to recover since the army retook it in March last year.

“I’d like to reiterate how pleased I am to have taken the first United Nations Humanitarian Air Service flight to Khartoum in three years,” Denise Brown said after stepping off the aircraft.

“It’s a big deal for the humanitarian community.” The flight had come from the Red Sea city of Port Sudan.

Khartoum’s airport was badly damaged early in the war and was one of the RSF’s last strongholds during the army offensive that reclaimed the capital.

Earlier this month, a passenger flight also landed at Khartoum airport for the first time since the war began.

Although renovated, the airport was hit last year by several drone strikes, including one on the eve of its planned reopening in October.

“Being able to get around the Sudan, which is a huge country, in a plane is going to facilitate our work,” said Brown.

The UN’s most senior official for Sudan, who was travelling onwards to the Kordofan region, where the cities of Kadugli and Dilling were besieged for months before the army lifted the blockade in recent weeks.

Brown said access to the cities had been effectively impossible.

“We were not able to get supplies in. We had to remove our staff for their own safety,” she said.

Humanitarian deliveries resumed only last week, with more than 50 trucks carrying essential supplies for frontline Sudanese responders.

Brown echoed growing UN alarm over escalating hunger, saying that available data suggested there were currently famine conditions in Dilling, which has not been officially confirmed.

In El-Fasher and Kadugli, famine has already been confirmed by a UN-backed assessment.

“It’s essential that the world understands the consequences of war,” she said, urging global leaders to “put their heads together to find a solution.”