Drone Attack on Sudan Aid Convoy Kills One

A drone strike on a humanitarian convoy in Sudan’s North Kordofan state has left one person dead and several others injured, according to the United Nations.

The convoy was travelling on Friday toward areas near El-Obeid, a city controlled by the Sudanese army but surrounded for nearly a year by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Denise Brown, the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, said she saw the aftermath of the attack, including trucks burning, shortly after visiting El-Obeid. 

She voiced grave concern over the incident and urged all parties to safeguard humanitarian workers, supplies and infrastructure.

Emergency Lawyers, a group that monitors alleged war crimes in Sudan, said the convoy, operating under contract with the World Food Programme, had come under attack and attributed the strike to the RSF. 

The Sudan Doctors Network, another civilian monitoring group, also held the paramilitary force responsible. It reported that three people were wounded and described the strike as a serious breach of international humanitarian law that could constitute a war crime.

The group warned that the attack jeopardises efforts to deliver urgently needed assistance to civilians caught in the conflict.

According to the UN, more than 21 million people, nearly half of Sudan’s population, are facing acute food insecurity.

Recent fighting has been concentrated in the Kordofan region following the RSF’s consolidation of control over much of Darfur in western Sudan. 

Sudan has been gripped by conflict since April 2023, when fighting began between the army and the RSF. The war has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, and created one of the world’s most severe humanitarian emergencies.