Khartoum:
A ship loaded with US-donated food that arrived in Sudan on Sunday will help to feed about 300,000 people uprooted by fighting this year in the Darfur region, the UN said.
The vessel delivered more than 47,000 tonnes of sorghum, a staple food in Sudan, donated by the United States Agency for International Development.
"It comes at a time when we need it," Amor Almagro, of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), told AFP.
Darfur this year experienced its worst violence in a decade, adding to the strain on a region where about two million people were already displaced by 11 years of conflict.
"The food will be used particularly in the conflict-affected region of Darfur, where WFP is assisting more than three million people, including some 300,000 displaced by fighting in recent months," a WFP press release said.
Despite a 17-year-old trade embargo imposed by Washington against Sudan, the US has been a major aid donor and is the biggest contributor to WFP Sudan.
The sorghum delivered Sunday represents a major portion of the $164 million which USAID contributed to WFP in Sudan this year.
A British aid official this month described Sudan's humanitarian needs as "astonishing", with a deteriorating situation in Darfur and South Kordofan state, as well as tens of thousands of people escaping from war-torn South Sudan.
"Resources are very short," said the official, Cate Turton.