Sudan: Drone strike in Kadugli kills 6 UN peacekeepers

By KADUGLI/NEW YORK

A drone strike hit a United Nations facility in war-torn Sudan on Saturday, killing six peacekeepers, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

The strike hit the U.N. peacekeeping logistics base in the city of Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan State, he said in a statement.

Eight other peacekeepers were wounded. All the victims were Bangladeshi nationals serving in the U.N. Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).

Guterres expressed condolences to Bangladesh and the families of the fallen, and wished a swift recovery to the injured.

Guterres said attacks targeting U.N. peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law, and he reminded all parties to the conflict of their obligation to protect U.N. personnel and civilians.

“I reiterate my call on the warring parties to agree on an immediate cessation of hostilities and to resume talks to reach a lasting ceasefire,” he said.

“Attacks as the one today in South Kordofan against peacekeepers are unjustifiable. There will need to be accountability,” he said in a statement.

Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus in a statement said he was “deeply saddened” by the attack, and put the toll at six dead and eight wounded.

He asked the UN to ensure that his country’s personnel were offered “any necessary emergency support”.

“The government of Bangladesh will stand by the families in this difficult moment,” Yunus added.

Dhaka’s foreign ministry said it “strongly condemned” the attack.

UN peacekeepers are deployed to Abyei, a disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan.

The Sudanese army published a video on its Facebook page showing fires blazing and two columns of smoke rising from the UNISFA base.

The army-aligned government based in Port Sudan issued a statement condemning the attack and accusing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of being behind it.

In a statement, the Sovereignty Council headed by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan called the attack a “dangerous escalation”.

The RSF in a statement on Telegram said it rejected “the claims and allegations… regarding an air attack that targeted the United Nations headquarters in Kadugli, and the accompanying false accusations against our forces of being behind it through the use of a drone”.

The RSF has been at war with the Sudanese military since April 2023.

Sudan’s war has so far killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and resulted in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Source: Open Newswire @ Sudan: Drone strike in Kadugli kills 6 UN peacekeepers – Radio Tamazuj