UN aid workers killed in ambush in African state

The personnel were delivering critical food aid to a famine-stricken city in war-torn Sudan, according to the organization

At least five UN aid workers were killed and several others injured when an armed group attacked a humanitarian convoy late Monday in Sudan, where a conflict between rival forces has raged for over two years.

The convoy, jointly operated by the World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF, was en route to the war-torn North Darfur city of Al Fashir when it came under fire while parked 80 kilometers away, awaiting clearance, the agencies said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The convoy, made up of 15 trucks, was attempting to reach children and families in famine-affected Al Fashir with life-saving food and nutrition supplies,” they reported.

According to the statement, several trucks were burned and vital humanitarian supplies damaged.

The five victims were Sudanese contractors employed by the UN agencies.

“The United Nations condemns this horrendous attack in the strongest possible terms,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday.

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The convoy had traveled more than 1,800 km from Port Sudan, which itself has endured drone strikes, in what the UN said would have been the first aid delivery to Al Fashir in over a year.

The ambush follows recent escalations in violence, including a bombing of WFP premises in the city last week and a deadly drone strike on a hospital in the North Kordofan capital, El Obeid.

The African country has been mired in conflict since April 2023, when fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Over 9 million people have been displaced by the war, and humanitarian groups warn that famine and disease are spreading rapidly. According to the UN, at least 1.5 million people are trapped in Al Fashir and its surrounding camps, cut off from sustained aid delivery.

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On Tuesday, the UN food agency and UNICEF warned that hundreds of thousands of people in the region, many of whom are children, face a “high risk of malnutrition and starvation if supplies do not urgently reach them.”

The WFP and UNICEF said that while their teams remain on the ground despite the insecurity, Sudan’s warring parties must uphold international humanitarian law and ensure the safety of aid workers.

“Both agencies demand an immediate end to attacks on humanitarian personnel, their facilities and vehicles,” they stated.