afrol News, 9 September - After a 2,800-kilometre journey from Libya through the sands, dunes and mountains of Sahara, the first convoy of trucks carrying food aid for refugees in eastern Chad today arrived. The hazardous 12-day drive thus opened up a new route to feed tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees that guaranteed is dry all year long. The previous route from the Cameroonian coast to Chad's capital N'djamena and eastwards to the Sudanese border is closed during the rainy season.

The World Food Programme (WFP) today celebrated the first-ever arrival of food aid through the Libyan route at the Oure Cassoni refugees camp in eastern Chad. The 20 trucks loaded with 440 tonnes of wheat flour bought with a Swiss donation arrived in the town of Bahai late on Wednesday after a 12-day drive from the southern Libyan ancient trading post of Al Kohfra, where the road ends and the sands of the Sahara begin.

After customs formalities were completed, 11 of the trucks went to Oure Cassoni camp, 15 kilometres from Bahai, and unloaded 240 tons of food and the last nine trucks headed on to the administrative settlement of Iriba to the south-west to deliver their supplies for camps in the area. The 440 tons of wheat flour it carried can feed some 30,000 people for one month as the major part of a food ration.

- With this trip we have shown that the Libyan corridor is a feasible route to reach Sudanese refugees here who need food from WFP, said convoy leader Jacobus Saenen. "It saves both distance and time. It is long, but it also has a big advantage during the rainy season because it is dry," he added, describing the hazardous tour that many doomed impossible when the idea first was launched.

The trip however was not trouble-free. The convoy across the Sahara left the Libyan Mediterranean port of Benghazi on 16 August. "We covered the whole Sahara and experienced every part of it. Flat, endless, pure sand desert with no reference for orientation; rolling chains of shifting sand dunes; sharp rocks; mountain regions of moonscapes and huge rock cliffs; rolling hills, red sand and spectacular rock formations," said WFP Information Officer Casey Kauffman, who went with the convoy to film the trip.

The convoy covered an average of 135 kilometres each day. After arriving in the southern Libyan town of Al Kohfra from Benghazi, the convoy regrouped and prepared for the desert challenge. It left Al Kohfra on 28 August on the gruelling 1,700-kilometre trip across the Sahara on dirt and sand tracks. Each truck had a Libyan driver and a mechanic aboard. On the journey, the temperature frequently rose above 45 degrees. The wind, sand and dust were constant and tough on truck engines and telecommunications equipment.

- To avoid the worst heat, the convoy drove from early morning to noon and from 5 pm until late into the night, Ms Kauffman reports. "Afternoons were spent eating, drinking tea and napping under the trucks. For food, a goat or sheep was killed each day. The animals rode on the top of the trucks along with fuel, onions, watermelons, and spare tyres," the enthusiastic WFP spokeswoman adds, describing her journey.

The Libyan military escort had left the convoy as it entered a desert no-man's land between Libya and Chad. From there on, the caravan of trucks was on its own from 1 to 4 September, "depending only on the good sense of direction of the drivers, a few tracks in the sand and a Global Positioning System unit," WFP reports.

On 4 September, the convoy was met by Chadian military escorts for the drive through mountains, where banditry can be a problem. Twenty heavily-armed soldiers aboard two pick-up trucks led the line of WFP trucks southwards to the Sudanese refugee camps in north-eastern Chad.

- Getting stuck in sand and flat tyres were regular problems, Ms Kauffman reports. "A couple of serious breakdowns included a broken gear box, and a broken engine fan that broke the radiator. The worst breakdown took more than half a day to fix. All truckers and mechanics cooperated to find spares, repair engines, and get pulled out of the sand. The innovation and creativity that the mechanics displayed was astonishing, given the weather conditions and need to recycle parts," she tells.

The WFP assumes that the new route will allow the UN agency to move hundreds of extra tonnes of food per month to camps in Chad for many of the 200,000 men, women and children driven from their homes in Darfur.

In mid-July, the Libyan government had responded to WFP's appeal for international assistance by signing a landmark 10-year agreement with UN agency, guaranteeing the safe passage of food and other UN relief supplies through Libya, destined for the displaced Sudanese.

Until now, WFP transported most food aid via the port of Douala, in southern Cameroon, but heavy rains have rendered many of Chad's roads unusable, blocking the movement of food at times for days at a time. The most direct route from the Chadian capital, N'djamena, to the refugee camps in eastern Chad is impassable for much of the current rainy season. Near the camps, flash floods have swallowed up several four-wheel drive aid agency vehicles and trucks carrying supplies.

- The Libyan corridor should allow year-round access to the refugee camps in both Chad's northern and central border areas, as well as make food transport more efficient and secure, WFP says in a statement released today.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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