A famine-stricken camp housing around 500,000 displaced people in Sudan has received its first aid convoy in months.

United Nations trucks arrived Friday in Zamzam, home to masses forced to flee during Sudan’s 18-month civil war.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) said food deliveries had been delayed for months due to heavy fighting in the neighboring town of El-Fasher in Darfur, as well as “impassable” roads made by the rainy season.

The war – a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, forcing 10 million people from their homes and plunging communities into hunger.

Zamzam’s population has reportedly exploded since April, when the RSF began fighting to take El-Fasher from the army. El-Fasher is the only town still under military control in the western region of Darfur.

In August, an independent group of food safety experts determined that the war had pushed Zamzam into famine.

The conditions for classifying an area as famine are that at least 20% of households must be facing an extreme lack of food, with 30% of children suffering from acute malnutrition and two people in 10,000 dying daily from hunger or malnutrition and of illness. .

The food convoy to Zamzam is part of a major effort by WFP to reach populations in the “neediest and most isolated conflict zones”, the organization said.

Three convoys in total, numbering more than 700 trucks, were delivered, with enough food to feed 1.5 million people for more than a month, the statement said.

Part of the food aid is also intended for South Kordofan State.

“These trucks transport much more than food; they provide a lifeline for people caught in the crossfire of conflict and hunger.

“We need guaranteed safe passage for our trucks and sustained international support to reach all families at risk,” said Laurent Bukera, WFP regional director for East Africa.

The warring parties have both been accused of blocking and looting aid, but both deny the allegations.

The convoy that arrived at Zamzam camp on Friday had left Adré, on the border with Chad, on November 9 – a key route for delivering aid to Darfur.

This corridor was closed by order of the military-controlled government in February and reopened for three months in August.

Members of the government protested the opening, arguing that it would allow the RSF to deliver weapons, the Reuters news agency reported.

Last week the government agreed to keep it open for three more months.

A second WFP aid convoy left the military stronghold of Port Soudan, Sudan’s only port, ten days ago and is also heading towards the Zamzamp camp in the west.