An aid plane belonging to the International Red Cross Society landed in Sudan for the first time since the outbreak of the clashes between Army Chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Gen. Ahmed Dangalo, the leader of the Rapid Support Force (RSF) paramilitary forces on April 15.
The plane loaded with tons of aid including surgical equipment and supplies, landed on Sunday following a three-day ceasefire window agreed by the warring generals, and is expected to be able “to treat 1,500 patients” in the country where most hospitals are out of order because of the fighting, according to the ICRC in a statement.
The plane, according to the statement, which also had on board humanitarian personnel, took off from Amman and landed in the eastern coastal city of Port-Sudan, 850 km east of Khartoum where the fighting is concentrated.
The ICRC said the shipment contained “anesthetic products, dressings, suture material and other surgical items”.
“This equipment will allow us to treat 1,500 wounded people. We now hope to be able to deliver it quickly to the largest hospitals in Khartoum,” ICRC’s regional director for Africa, Patrick Youssef, told journalists at a press conference.
He, however, warned that in order to deliver the aid across most of the affected states, more security guarantees were required in Khartoum and Darfur ”which are the epicenter of the fighting that has left over 580 people dead”.
“In Darfur, the situation is very difficult. The populations are moving, in normal times we would follow them but in the current situation it is impossible,” he added.