Latest news with #aidconvoy
Washington Post
3 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
An attack on an aid convoy in Sudan's Darfur region kills 5, UN says
CAIRO — An attack on an aid convoy in Sudan's Darfur region left five people dead, the United Nations said Tuesday, and the warring parties in the northeast African nation traded blame for the attack. The attack on the 15-truck convoy came Monday night near the Rapid Support Forces-controlled town of Koma in North Darfur province. It was trying to reach el-Fasher city, according to a joint statement from the World Food Program and UNICEF. Both agencies called for an investigation into the attack.
Associated Press
3 days ago
- General
- Associated Press
An attack on an aid convoy in Sudan's Darfur region kills 5, UN says
CAIRO (AP) — An attack on an aid convoy in Sudan's Darfur region left five people dead, the United Nations said Tuesday, and the warring parties in the northeast African nation traded blame for the attack. The attack on the 15-truck convoy came Monday night near the Rapid Support Forces-controlled town of Koma in North Darfur province. It was trying to reach el-Fasher city, according to a joint statement from the World Food Program and UNICEF. Both agencies called for an investigation into the attack. Sudan was plunged into a war more than two years ago, when tensions between Sudan's army and its rival paramilitary RSF exploded with street battles in the capital of Khartoum that quickly spread across the country. Monday night's attack, in which many trucks were burned and aid was damaged, also wounded members of the convoy, the statement said. It didn't say who was responsible for the attack. 'It is devastating that the supplies have not reached the vulnerable children and families they were intended to,' the statement said. The WFP and UNICEF said they were negotiating to complete the trip to el-Fasher, which is besieged by RSF, after traveling more than 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) from the eastern city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea, which serves as an interim seat for the country's military-allied government. The RSF said in a statement the convoy was hit by a military aircraft in a 'preplanned attack.' Footage shared by the RSF showed burned vehicles carrying what appeared to be flour bags. The military-led government, however, rejected the accusation and said in a statement that aid trucks were 'treacherously attacked by assault drones operated by the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia.' The Resistance Committees in el-Fasher tracked the fighting in and around the city and blamed the paramilitaries for the attack, saying the RSF statement aimed to 'mislead public opinion and evade accountability.' El-Fasher, more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) southwest of Khartoum, is one of the last strongholds of the Sudanese military in Darfur. The region has been under RSF siege since May 2024. Monday's attack was the latest on aid operations in the past two years. Last week, WFP's premises in el-Fasher were bombed, damaging a workshop, office building and clinic, according to the statement. The war has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis. It has driven about 13 million people from their homes, including over 4 million who crossed into neighboring countries. Parts of Sudan have been pushed into famine. The fighting has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in Darfur, according to the U.N. and international rights groups.
Sky News
3 days ago
- Health
- Sky News
Five killed, several injured after attack on UN aid convoy in Sudan
Five people have been killed and several more injured after an attack on an aid convoy in the Sudanese region of North Darfur. The number of dead was revealed in a statement from the World Food Programme and UNICEF. Earlier, it was reported that a UN convoy delivering food into El Fasher in North Darfur came under attack overnight with initial reports indicating there had been "multiple casualties". The latest statement said: "The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF condemn an attack on a joint humanitarian convoy near Al Koma, North Darfur, last night. "Five members of the convoy were killed, and several more people were injured. Multiple trucks were burned, and critical humanitarian supplies were damaged. "The convoy, made up of 15 trucks, was attempting to reach children and families in famine-affected El Fasher with life-saving food and nutrition supplies. Following months of escalating violence, hundreds of thousands of people in El Fasher - many of them children - are at high risk of malnutrition and starvation if supplies do not urgently reach them. "As is standard with our humanitarian convoys, the route was shared in advance, and parties on the ground were notified and aware of the location of the trucks. Under international humanitarian law, aid convoys must be protected, and parties have the obligation to allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need. "Both agencies demand an immediate end to attacks on humanitarian personnel, their facilities and vehicles - a violation under international humanitarian law. "We call for an urgent investigation and for the perpetrators to be held to account. "We extend our condolences to the families of those killed and our heartfelt sympathy and support to all those injured. It is devastating the supplies have not reached the vulnerable children and families they were intended to. The convoy had travelled over 1,800km from Port Sudan, and we were negotiating access to complete the journey to El Fasher when it was attacked. "This latest incident follows a series of attacks on humanitarian operations over the past two years, including last week's bombardment of WFP's premises in El Fasher which damaged a workshop, office building and clinic. "Attacks on humanitarian staff, aid, operations, as well as civilians and civilian infrastructure in Sudan have continued for far too long with impunity. WFP and UNICEF colleagues remain on the ground despite the insecurity, but call for safe, secure operating conditions and for international humanitarian law to be respected by all parties. The lives of millions in Sudan, including in locations like El Fasher in Darfur, depend on it."
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
‘Multiple casualties' reported after attack on UN aid convoy in Darfur
A UN aid convoy carrying critical food supplies to a famine-threatened city in western Sudan has been targeted in a brutal attack that appeared to have caused 'multiple casualties'. A number of trucks belonging to the UN's food and children's agencies were attacked as they headed towards El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, which has been besieged by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than a year. As details of the atrocity emerged, the UN's refugee agency confirmed the number of people who had fled the country since Sudan's civil war began had surpassed 4 million, and warned that the scale of displacement was 'putting regional and global stability at stake'. The attack on the aid convoy occurred about 45 miles (75km) from El Fasher, in Al Koma, a stronghold of the RSF. A spokesperson for the UN children's agency, Unicef, said: 'We have received information about a convoy with WFP [World Food Programme] and Unicef trucks being attacked last night while positioned in Al Koma, waiting for approval to proceed to El Fasher.' Al Koma was the location of another atrocity at the weekend, when an airstrike on a civilian market by the Sudanese army reportedly killed at least 89 people. Although the attackers of the convoy have not yet been officially identified, the area is firmly under the control of the RSF, with aid trucks forced to navigate a series of the paramilitary group's checkpoints to reach El Fasher. Last week the WFP expressed 'shock' after its premises in El Fasher were repeatedly shelled by the RSF. El Fasher is home to about 2 million people, including about 800,000 internally displaced persons who fled to the city from across Darfur and it remains the only one of five state capitals in the Darfur region not to fall under RSF control. In recent months, it has endured daily shelling amid an ever-tightening siege. Within the city itself, food supplies are running so low that the UN has warned of famine. Activists trapped within El Fasher have said thousands of people face starvation as essential foods and medicines disappear from markets because of the RSF's siege. Speaking to the activist network Avaaz several days ago, a volunteer called Adam said community kitchens in the city no longer had access to maize or wheat. 'We used to have goods coming in regularly through vehicles, but now the only goods that enter the city come on donkeys,' he said. 'For the entire city of El Fasher, we have no more than 10 donkeys that enter the city carrying goods per day. Even these people carrying limited supplies on their donkeys get questioned and interrogated at RSF [checkpoints].' The civil war, now in its third year, has caused the world's biggest humanitarian crisis. In addition to the 4 million people who have now fled Sudan, a record 11.6 million people have also been displaced within the country, about half of whom are in the Darfur region. Both the Sudanese army and the RSF have been accused of myriad war crimes and using starvation as a weapon of war.
BBC News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Chaos spreads as desperate Gazans wait for food aid
The limited amount of food that trickled into Gaza after an Israeli blockade was partly lifted has sparked chaotic scenes, as hunger continues to distributing food were overwhelmed by crowds and forced to close on Thursday, and armed looters attacked an aid convoy overnight - sparking a firefight with Hamas security officials who, witnesses say, were then targeted by an Israeli drone incident in central Gaza, recounted to BBC News by eyewitnesses, local journalists and Hamas officials, underscores the deteriorating security situation in Gaza, where governance has collapsed and lawlessness has spread.A convoy of 20 trucks, coordinated by the World Food Programme (WFP) and carrying flour, was en route from the Kerem Shalom crossing to a WFP warehouse in the city of Deir was being escorted by six Hamas security officers when it was ambushed by five unidentified gunmen, who fired at the tyres of the vehicles and tried to seize the Hamas security team engaged the attackers in a brief firefight, witnesses told BBC after the clash began, Israeli drones targeted the Hamas unit with four missiles, killing six officers and wounding others. Hamas issued a statement condemning the attack as "a horrific massacre" and accused Israel of deliberately targeting personnel tasked with protecting humanitarian News has contacted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.A small amount of food has been allowed to cross into Gaza this week: around 130 lorries carrying aid have crossed the border in the last three days, after an 11-week blockade was partly lifted by the IDF. The UN says 500 to 600 trucks of supplies a day are needed in Gazans tell BBC more aid needed as Israel eases blockadeInternational agencies, including the UN and the WFP, have repeatedly warned that the growing insecurity is hampering the delivery of desperately needed food and medical supplies to the population - the majority of whom are says the blockade was intended to put pressure on Hamas to release the hostages still held in Gaza. Israel has also accused Hamas of stealing supplies, which the group has WFP said 15 of its aid trucks were looted overnight on Thursday, and that "hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming is contributing to rising insecurity". The organisation called on Israel to help ensure the safe passage of Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, an agency that supports Palestinian refugees, wrote on X that no one should be "surprised let alone shocked" that aid had been looted because the "people of Gaza have been starved [and] deprived of the basics including water and medicines for more than 11 weeks".Earlier on Thursday, angry and hungry Palestinians crowded outside bakeries in Gaza in a desperate attempt to obtain bread, but the situation quickly descended into chaos, forcing distribution to forced most bakeries to suspend operations, citing a lack of residents across Gaza voiced growing frustration over the aid distribution method and criticised the WFP, which oversees food called for an immediate shift from distributing baked bread to handing out flour directly at a rate of one sack per argue that distributing flour would allow families to bake at home or in tents - which, they say, would be safer than waiting at the overcrowded aid centres. Palestinians on the ground have told of the deepening humanitarian crisis and the collapse of basic services facing people living among the fighting or forced from their homes, as the IDF continues to ramp up its military operations against a displacement camp in southern Gaza's al-Mawasi, Abd al-Fatah Hussein told BBC News over WhatsApp that the situation is getting worse due to the number of people in the father-of-two said there is "no room" in al-Mawasi, where people ordered by the Israeli military to leave their homes are being told to go for safety."There is no electricity, no food, insufficient portable water, and no available medicine," he said."The repeated air strikes, especially during the night, add to the suffering."He described the aid trucks coming in as a "drop in the ocean of Gaza's needs".When he announced some supplies would finally be allowed into the strip earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said only a "basic amount" would be able to organisations have warned the amount of food entering Gaza in recent days is not close to what is needed to feed the 2.1 million people living there, while the UN has said about 500 lorries entered the territory on average every day before the famine, humanitarian groups have warned, looms over Secretary General Antonio Guterres said 400 trucks had been cleared to enter Gaza this week, but supplies from just 115 had been collected. He said nothing had "reached the besieged north" so some flour, baby food and medical supplies had made it into Gaza, and some bakeries in the south had begun operating again, Guterres said that amounted to a "teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required"."The supplies – 160,000 pallets, enough to fill nearly 9,000 trucks – are waiting," he a midwife with charity Project HOPE in Deir al-Balah, said women come to her clinic suffering from fainting, having sought medical help without eating breakfast. Many of them eat only one meal a day and subsist on high energy biscuits given by the charity, she said. "Due to malnutrition they are always telling us, 'my baby cannot take enough supplement from my breast… my baby won't stop crying… they always need to be breastfed, but my breast is empty'." Teenager Saba Nahed Alnajjar lives in Khan Younis, where the IDF ordered a mass evacuation earlier this week ahead of what it said would be an unprecedented military operation said her family has stayed in their partially destroyed home."An evacuation order has been issued for our area, but we have not been displaced because we have nowhere else to go," she said."There are not many citizens in the area... The displaced are sleeping in the street and there is no food. "The conditions are deteriorating and very difficult."Speaking over WhatsApp messages - often the only way to speak to people in Gaza, which journalists are blocked from entering by the IDF - she said the "bombing continues in a brutal manner".She and her family have little left, Saba said, adding: "We have no food, no flour - no basic necessities of life."
