At least five people have been killed and several others wounded in an attack on an aid convoy in Sudan’s Darfur region on Tuesday, the United Nations has said, with the warring parties in the northeast African nation trading blame for the attack.
The attack on the 15-truck convoy carrying desperately needed food and nutrition supplies happened on Monday night near the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)-controlled town of Koma in North Dafur province.
It was trying to reach besieged el-Fasher city, according to a joint statement from the World Food Programme and UNICEF. Both agencies called for an investigation into the attack.
“This was the first UN humanitarian convoy that was going to make it to el-Fasher in over one year,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters at in New York.
Monday night’s attack burned many trucks and damaged the aid they were carrying, the statement said. It didn’t say who was responsible for the attack.
The WFP and UNICEF said they were negotiating to complete the trip to el-Fasher from the eastern city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea, which serves as an interim seat for the country’s military-allied government.
“It is devastating that the supplies have not reached the vulnerable children and families they were intended to,” the statement said.
Dujarric said all those killed and injured were Sudanese contractors working for the WFP and UNICEF.
“They were 80 kilometres from el-Fasher, after having travelled 1,800 kilometres for days in incredibly difficult terrain, incredibly dangerous terrain,” he said. “They were parked on the side of the road waiting for clearances and they were attacked.”
“It was an air attack, most likely drones. But we don’t know who the perpetrators were.”
Trading blame
The RSF said in a statement the convoy was hit by a military aircraft in a “pre-planned 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.”
The UN demanded a halt to attacks on humanitarian personnel, facilities and vehicles.
El-Fasher, more than 800 kilometres southwest of the capital Khartoum, is one of the last strongholds of the Sudanese military in Darfur. The region has been under RSF siege since May 2024.
Sudan was plunged into a war more than two years ago, when tensions between the army and its rival paramilitary RSF exploded with street battles in the capital of Khartoum that quickly spread across the country.
The war has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. It has driven about 13 million people from their homes, including over four million who crossed into neighbouring 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 UN and international rights groups.
