They risk being robbed or kidnapped, but Sudan's truckers still deliver food aid to thousands displaced by conflict in Darfur, where banditry is often overshadowed by the fighting between army and rebels.

"We were delivering food to those displaced and were heading back when armed men blocked the road and stole our truck at gunpoint," said Salim Keydum, a trucker from Kordofan in central Sudan who does the Darfur route.

Last year, he was leading a convoy heading from Nyala to el-Fasher, one of Darfur's most dangerous routes, when an armed group stopped his convoy in the town of Manawashi and took him and others hostage for two months.

"We spent five days in one place and the rest of the two months in another place.

"It was the rainy season, we stayed under a tree where there were scorpions.

"We were finally released but they took equipment, petrol, money. They only gave us back our driving licence," he recalls.

The truck drivers in Darfur are a target of choice for bandits and rebels who steal their vehicles to sell on the black market.

200 kidnapped truck drivers

While the rare abductions of Western aid workers dominate the headlines, the kidnap of truck drivers often goes unnoticed in the press, despite the numbers.

The United Nations says more than 250 humanitarian vehicles were robbed in 2008 and around 200 people kidnapped. The trucks are driven by non-governmental organisations, UN agencies or freelance truck drivers contracted to UN agencies.

"I was kidnapped, one of the abductors kept hitting me in the back with the butt of the rifle to force me to cross the valley, but I managed to divert their attention and escape," recalls Mussa Hamed Mussa, a mechanic working for the World Food Programme.

The WFP, a UN agency, manages the transportation of food aid from Port Sudan on the Red Sea to camps for displaced persons in Darfur, where it is distributed by NGOs.

The organisation said Darfur "represents more than 70 percent of WFP's budgeted activities in Sudan."

While the conflict between rebels and government forces has calmed down in the past year, banditry has become endemic on the roads of Darfur, where at least 2.7 million people displaced by the conflict are able to live thanks to humanitarian aid.

Demand for equality

The United Nations says up to 300 000 people have died since ethnic minority rebels in Darfur rose up against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum to demand equality in February 2003.

Sudan says 10 000 have been killed.

The war began when African ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-led Khartoum regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.

The conflict has since deteriorated with the emergence of a multiplying array of rebel groups, breakaway militia groups and bandits.

Last year, WFP was forced to halve its deliveries to Darfur due to banditry.

Other groups such as German Agro Action (GAA) also suspended food distribution in 2008 to 450 000 people in North Darfur state because of insecurity.

"The road north of Nyala is the most dangerous but we're not scared," insisted Issa, surrounded by drivers in long oil-stained tunics, near Nyala's main road where truckers sip on sweet tea as they wait to make their next journey.

"I own a truck," said Issa proudly leaning against his Hino, an enormous orange Japanese-made vehicle.

The WFP subcontracts a large part of its transport operation to Sudanese companies and hires its drivers through employment agencies, a cheaper option than giving them staff positions with the United Nations.

"I earn around 1200 Sudanese pounds ($500, €355) a month," said Mahmud Mohammed Ali, a driver hired by Capital employment agency to work for WFP.

"It's a well paid job compared to private transport companies," he said, one of many to yearn for a UN staff job.

AFP

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