The UN relief chief has said his colleagues are ready to distribute aid supplies in Sudan but need firm commitments of protection from hostilities.

“We have a plan for where we would deploy,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths told reporters in a briefing from Port Sudan, Xinhua news agency reported.

“We have a plan for how we get supplies to these places. Medical first, obviously in Khartoum, safe water there as well. Supplies of a range of things to Darfur. And we know how we can do this and we will start doing it.”

However, the UN relief coordinator said he has to have commitments publicly and clearly from the two clashing militaries, to protect humanitarian assistance and to deliver on the obligation to allow supplies for people to move. “We should do that… even when there is no formal natural ceasefire. We will still require agreements and arrangements to allow for movements of staff and supplies.”

Griffiths and Volker Perthes, the Special Representative for the Secretary-General in Sudan, had telephone calls with the opposing military leaders, Generals Abdelfattah Al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, and with civil society leaders, where he sought protection, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, visiting Nairobi, reiterated the immediate need for Sudan aid with secure and quick access. Noting the turmoil and the violence, he called for an immediate stop to the fighting.

“All parties must put the interests of the Sudanese people first – that means peace, prosperity and a return to civilian rule,” the UN chief said.

The World Health Organization said it has 80 metric tons of emergency medical supplies awaiting customs clearance in Port Sudan. The shipment includes nearly 60 metric tons of IV fluids, eight metric tons of trauma kits and more than 12 metric tons of kits to treat severe acute malnutrition. Officials expedited customs clearance to ensure the quick release of these supplies.

The World Food Programme (WFP) plans food assistance for 384,000 people who were already refugees, newly displaced people, and host communities in the Sudan states of Gedaref, Gezira, Kassala and White Nile.

In Port Sudan, WFP has at least 8,000 metric tons of food ready to dispatch as soon as possible, OCHA said. Before the fighting, the agency had more than 80,000 metric tons of food in Sudan. Nearly 17,000 metric tons were looted. The WFP is trying to determine what remains.