Khartoum and Juba have extended the 2014 agreement allowing Sudanese territory to be used to transport relief assistance to affected areas of South Sudan.

The joint agreement, also cosigned by the World Food Program, will run for another period of six months.

It permits humanitarian agencies to deliver food assistance by land, air and river routes through Sudanese territories to the affected areas of South Sudan.

“This is part of our strategy for the humanitarian work to provide the possible facilities to contribute positively to the humanitarian stability in South Sudan,’’ said Ahmed Osman, the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, Ahmed Mohamed Osman, who signed on behalf of Sudan.

He said, addressing the media during the signing ceremony, that the Sudanese government is fully committed to upholding the agreement.

The agreement was also cosigned by the Ambassador of South Sudan to Sudan, Mayen Dut, and the World Food Program Representative in Sudan, Matthew Hollingsworth.

For his part, South Sudan’s Khartoum Ambassador Mayen Dut said the agreement came as a request by the government of South Sudan.

He said: “Instead of one corridor, we want another corridor to be established or to be opened, because it’s not only the areas in Upper Nile or in Rank, but there are other people that are vulnerable in other parts of South Sudan.”

The Western parts of the country, like Bentiu and Northern Bahr El-Ghazal will also have access to humanitarian assistance under the agreement, according to Mr. Dut.

The agreement between the two countries was signed in 2014; a few months after the conflict broke out in 2013, to allow delivery of lifesaving assistance to affected people.

It facilitated the UN World Food Program in Sudan to deliver 54,420 metric tons of emergency food aid to over 200,000 people in the Upper Nile region.