Sudan: 5 killed in attack on aid convoy, UN says

Time of India

2 days ago

Five aid workers were killed in an attack on a convoy in Sudan, preventing food deliveries to families who face starvation in the war-torn Darfur region, UN agencies said on Tuesday.
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The attack on the 15-truck convoy happened Monday night near the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)-controlled town of Koma in North Darfur province.
"Five members of the convoy were killed and several more people were injured. Multiple trucks were burned, and critical humanitarian supplies were damaged," Unicef and the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a joint statement.
Both agencies called for an investigation into the attack, which they said was a violation of international humanitarian law.
"It is devastating that the supplies have not reached the vulnerable children and families they were intended to," the statement added.
The agencies did not specify who was behind the attack. The UN said those killed and injured were Sudanese contractors working for WFP and Unicef.
Warring parties trade blame for attack:
The aid agencies said the convoy was attacked while trying to access el-Fasher city, which is one of the last strongholds of the Sudanese military in Darfur.
Since 2024, el-Fasher has been under siege by RSF forces.
The trucks had traveled more than 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) from the eastern city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
"This was the first UN humanitarian convoy that was going to make it to el-Fasher in over one year," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.
The RSF claimed in a statement the convoy was hit by a military aircraft in a "pre-planned attack."
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However, Sudan's military-led government rejected this and said in a statement that aid trucks were "treacherously attacked by assault drones operated by the rebel Rapid Support Forces militia."
Neither of the reports could be independently verified.
Famine ravaging Sudan:
Since fighting between RSF paramilitary group and Sudan's military-controlled government began two years ago, Sudan has been engulfed by what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than a million people on the brink of starvation in the North Darfur state alone.
The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted 13 million people and created dire hunger and displacement crises. Four million people have fled across Sudan's borders, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.