Improved access to Nuba mountains

NAIROBI
4 Apr 2003 (IRIN)

The World Food Programme (WFP) has for the first time in 19 years delivered food to Karkar in the Nuba mountains in a convoy arriving from northern Sudan.

The first trucks, which contained 43 mt of food commodities, had left Kadougli in northern Sudan on 31 March and arrived in rebel-held Karkar on 1 April, WFP said in a statement.

The convoy travelled the 80 km journey under the escort of the Joint Military Commission in charge of supervising the ceasefire agreement for the Nuba mountains.

Following this trial, WFP would continue to transport food by road to the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army-held area, said the statement. "This reduced the cost significantly," a WFP spokeswoman, Lara Melo, told IRIN.