Context

• A key supply route into Sudan’s Darfur region, deemed at risk of famine by experts, has been cut off due to heavy rains, a World Food Programme official said.

Background

• Thousands of tons of aid are stranded at the Tina crossing on the Chad border, prompting the body to reopen talks with the army-aligned government to open an alternative, all-weather crossing further south called Adre.
• The World Food Programme (WFP) has described Sudan as the world’s biggest hunger crisis, with the western Darfur region most at risk as Sudan’s 15-month civil war that has displaced millions and sparked ethnic violence grinds on.

Back to Basics

About Darfur Region

• A region of western Sudan.
• As an administrative region, Darfur is divided into five federal states.
• Because of the War in Darfur between Sudanese government forces and the indigenous population, the region has been in a state of humanitarian emergency and genocide since 2003.
•  It is largely a semi-desert plateau with the Marrah Mountains (Jebel Marra), a range of volcanic peaks rising up to 3,042 meters (9,980 ft) of elevation above sea level, and a topographic prominence of 2512 m, in the center of the region.
• The region’s main towns are Al Fashir, Geneina, and Nyala.
• There are four main features of its physical geography.
  • The whole eastern half of Darfur is covered with plains and low hills of sandy soils, known as goz, and sandstone hills.  To the north the goz is overtaken by the desert sands of the Sahara.
  • A second feature are the wadis, which range from seasonal watercourses that flood only occasionally during the wet season to large wadis that flood for most of the rains and flow from western Darfur hundreds of kilometres west to Lake Chad.
  • Western Darfur is dominated by the third feature, basement rock, sometimes covered with a thin layer of sandy soil.
  • The fourth and final feature are the Marrah Mountains and Daju Hills, volcanic plugs created by a massif, that rise up to a peak at Deriba crater where there is a small area of temperate climate, high rainfall and permanent springs of water.

Source: IE & Wikipedia

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