KHARTOUM: Sudanese gunmen have looted a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse containing some 1,900 tons of food aid in Darfur amid a surge of violence in the troubled western region, officials said Wednesday.
Residents of El-Fasher, capital of North Darfur state, reported heavy shooting near the warehouse late Tuesday. “We heard intense gunfire,” Mohamed Salem told AFP.
A WFP official said they were “conducting an audit into what was stolen from the warehouse, which contain some 1,900 tons of food products.”
Darfur has seen a spike in conflict since October triggered by disputes over land, livestock and access to water and grazing, with some 250 people reported killed in fighting between herders and farmers in recent months.
Tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Sudan is also reeling from political turbulence in the wake of a coup led military chief General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan on October 25.
Last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned looting and violence near a former UN logistics base in El-Fasher that had been recently handed over to the local authorities.
Over 14 million people, a third of Sudan’s population, will need humanitarian aid next year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the highest level for a decade.
Darfur was ravaged by a civil war that erupted in 2003, pitting ethnic minority rebels who complained of discrimination against the Arab-dominated government.
More than 300,000 people died and 2.5 million were displaced during the conflict, according to the UN.
While the main conflict in Darfur has subsided, with a peace deal struck with key rebel groups last year, the arid region has remained awash with weapons and violence often erupts.
A joint UN and African Union mission, UNAMID, ended 13 years of peacekeeping operations last December.
Sudanese gunmen loot UN food aid warehouse in Darfur
https://arab.news/jufwv
Sudanese gunmen loot UN food aid warehouse in Darfur
- Residents of El-Fasher, capital of North Darfur state, reported heavy shooting near the warehouse late Tuesday
- A WFP official said they were “conducting an audit into what was stolen from the warehouse, which contain some 1,900 tons of food products”
Israel agrees to ‘limited reopening’ of Rafah crossing: PM’s office
- The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza
JERUSALEM: Israel said Monday it would allow a “limited reopening” of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt once it had recovered the remains of the last hostage in the Palestinian territory.
The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza.
Reopening Rafah forms part of a Gaza truce framework announced by US President Donald Trump in October, but the crossing has remained closed after Israeli forces took control of it during the war.
The Israeli military also said it was searching a cemetery in the Gaza Strip on Sunday for the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili, a non-commissioned officer in the police’s elite Yassam unit.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the reopening would depend on “the return of all living hostages and a 100 percent effort by Hamas to locate and return all deceased hostages,” Netanyahu’s office said on X.
It said Israel’s military was “currently conducting a focused operation to exhaust all of the intelligence that has been gathered in the effort to locate and return” Gvili’s body.
“Upon completion of this operation, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the US, Israel will open the Rafah Crossing,” it said.
