Senior United Nations officials appealed to the Security Council on August 6 for help in getting humanitarian aid access in Sudan "across borders, across battle lines, by air, by land" to fight famine that has taken hold in at least one site in North Darfur.
The United States last month suggested that the 15-member body consider authorizing aid access through border crossings like Adre from Chad. But Sudan's army-aligned government and council veto-power Russia said that there was no need for Security Council action.
A global hunger monitor —the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) —last week said more than 15 months of war in Sudan and restrictions on aid deliveries have caused famine in North Darfur's Zamzam camp for internally displaced people.
Sudan's government has rejected the finding, while Russia cast doubt on it.
The war in Sudan erupted in mid-April last year from a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule.
In February, the government banned aid deliveries through the Adre border crossing, one of the shortest routes to the hunger-stricken region. Government officials have claimed that the crossing is used by the RSF to move weapons.
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