ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday extended condolences to the government and people of Bangladesh after six United Nations peacekeepers from the country were killed in a drone strike in southern Sudan, condemning the attack and describing it as a war crime.

The attack took place amid a full-scale internal conflict that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group, following a power struggle after the collapse of Sudan’s post-Bashir political transition.

Omar Al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for nearly three decades, was ousted by the military in 2019 after months of mass protests, but efforts to transition to civilian rule later faltered, plunging the country back into violence that has since spread nationwide.

The drone strike hit a logistics base of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state, on Saturday, killing the Bangladeshi peacekeepers. Sudan’s army blamed the RSF for the attack, though there was no immediate public claim of responsibility.

“Pakistan strongly condemns the attack on @UNISFA in Kadugli, resulting in the tragic loss of 6 Bangladeshi peacekeepers & injuries to several others,” the country’s permanent mission to the UN said in a social media message. “We honor their supreme sacrifice in the service of peace, and express our deepest condolences to the government and people of #Bangladesh.”

“Such heinous attacks on UN peacekeepers amount to war crimes,” it added. “Perpetrators of this horrific attack must be identified and brought to justice. As a major troop-contributing country, we stand in complete solidarity with all Blue Helmets serving the cause of peace in the perilous conditions worldwide.”

According to Pakistan’s UN mission in July, the country has deployed more than 235,000 peacekeepers to 48 UN missions across four continents over the past eight decades.

Pakistan also hosts one of the UN’s oldest peacekeeping operations, the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), and is a founding member of the UN Peacebuilding Commission.

More than 180 Pakistani peacekeepers have lost their lives while serving under the UN flag.

Pakistan and Bangladesh have also been working in recent months to ease decades of strained ties rooted in the events of 1971, when Bangladesh — formerly part of Pakistan — became independent following a bloody war.

Relations have begun to shift following the ouster of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina last year amid mass protests.

Hasina later fled to India, Pakistan’s neighbor and arch-rival, creating space for Islamabad and Dhaka to rebuild their relationship.