The World Food Programme has urged all sides in Sudan's conflict to allow unrestricted access as the nation teeters on the brink of famine.
Sudan has been gripped by war since April 2023 between the regular armed forces led by the country's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his former deputy Mohammed Hamdan Daglo.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and resulted in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Both sides have been accused of committing war crimes, including targeting civilians and preventing aid from reaching those in need, as well as using methods that amount to starving millions.
"We want complete and unfettered access as well as the ability to get in through as many different entry points into Sudan as possible," WFP's executive director Cindy McCain told AFP on Sunday.
She warned that with entire Sudan currently at famine alert level and famine already declared at Darfur's Zamzam camp, "it will spread so it's really urgent and that we can get in and we can do it at scale."
About 11.3 million people have been uprooted by the war, among them nearly 3 million who have fled outside Sudan, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
About 26 million people face acute food insecurity, and a U.N.-backed assessment in August said the war had pushed the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur state into famine.
"For us, it's about getting food and trucks in there so it's important that the gates stay open," McCain said, adding that this included not just Sudan's border crossing with Chad but all crossings into the country.
"We need as many of them open as possible," she said.
On Oct. 18, Western countries including Britain, the United States, France and Germany urged both sides in war-torn Sudan to let in "urgently required" aid to millions of people in dire need.
"The two sides' systematic obstruction of local and international humanitarian efforts is at the root of this famine," the European and North American nations said in a joint statement.
Meanwhile, at least 124 people were killed earlier Saturday in attacks carried out by the paramilitary RSF on the village of Alseriha in the Gezira state of central Sudan, the Sudan Doctors Network said.
"A force affiliated with the RSF committed a massacre against civilians in the village of Alseriha, resulting in the death of 124 people from the area following an armed attack that lasted for hours, while dozens were injured and hundreds were displaced from the village," said the nongovernmental organization (NGO) in a statement.
The network condemned the RSF attack on Alseriha and other villages in the east and west of Gezira, calling it an "irrational escalation against civilians who have chosen to remain for over a year in difficult and tragic humanitarian conditions."
The RSF has not yet commented on the situation.
Earlier on Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that 853 households were displaced from Tamboul city and surrounding villages in Gezira state between Oct. 20 and 24, 2024, due to escalating clashes between the Sudanese army and RSF.
The developments come just days after Abu Aqla Muhammad Ahmed Kikil, the RSF commander in Gezira, announced his defection to the Sudanese army, taking his forces with him.
Areas in eastern Gezira, Kikil's home region, have become the base for his forces, who now fight alongside the army.
In Dec. 2023, Kikil’s RSF forces seized control of several cities in Gezira, including the state capital, Wad Medani, which is just south of Khartoum.
