The Khartoum government, Juba and the United Nations have signed a one-year deal to facilitate the flow of relief aid to the victims of famine in South Sudan until July 2018.
The three partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Monday in Khartoum for the agreement that aims to deliver 90,000 metric tons of aid, especially to the Upper Nile and Unity states.
The Sudanese Aid Commissioner, Mr Ahmed Mohammed Adam, said Khartoum was committed to the food delivery to the neighbouring state, adding that they would open more corridors this year.
“There is going to be an extension for one year, not six months as we used to do before," said Mr Adam.
Aid corridors
The South Sudan ambassador to Khartoum, Mr Mayan Dott, welcomed the extension, stressing that it would help save many lives.
“There are a lot of positive aspects that we achieved, one of them is, the increasing of the aid corridors from from one to four,” the diplomat added.
The representative of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Sudan, Ms Marta Ruedas, commended the Sudan government's gesture.
‘’It is really very significant that we are here today to sign such a qualitatively different MoU. It is one for a year, instead of two for six months each,'' she said.
The UN agencies in January declared a famine in South Sudan and since then, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Khartoum government have boosted their plans for more aid delivery to the affected states.
The agreement was first signed in 2014 after a civil war broke out in South Sudan.
WFP considers Sudan’s route as the shortest and most cost effective in the region to deliver the assistance to the troubled states.
