ROME: The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said Wednesday that its two top staff in Sudan had been ordered to leave the war-torn country by the foreign ministry.
The country director and emergency coordinator “have been designated as persona non grata, and asked to leave the country within 72 hours, without any explanation,” the Rome-based agency said in a statement.
WFP and senior UN officials were engaging with Sudanese authorities to protest the decision, which came “at a pivotal time,” it said.
“Humanitarian needs in Sudan have never been greater with more than 24 million people facing acute food insecurity and communities impacted by famine,” it said.
“At a moment when WFP and its partners need to be expanding their reach, this decision forces WFP to implement unplanned leadership changes, jeopardizing operations that support millions of vulnerable Sudanese facing extreme hunger, malnutrition, and even starvation,” it said.
The expulsions were announced days after paramilitaries seized the key city of El-Fasher in the western region of Darfur.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), locked in a brutal war with the army since April 2023, had launched a final assault on the city in recent days, seizing the army’s last positions.
The capture of El-Fasher has sparked fears of mass killings reminiscent of the region’s darkest days.
Analysts say Sudan is now effectively partitioned along an east-west axis, with the RSF running a parallel government across Darfur while the army is entrenched along the Nile and Red Sea in the north, east and center.
WFP says two top staff to be expelled from Sudan
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WFP says two top staff to be expelled from Sudan
- The expulsions were announced days after paramilitaries seized the key city of El Fasher in the western region of Darfur
Gunmen kill 3 Revolutionary Guards in Iranian province bordering Pakistan
- Iranian state media says attackers ambushed patrol in Sistan and Baluchistan province before fleeing
- Border region with Pakistan and Afghanistan has long seen militant and smuggling-related violence
TEHRAN: Gunmen killed three members of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan near the Pakistan border, state media reported.
The Guard members were ambushed while patrolling near the city of Lar in a mountainous area about 1,125 kilometers (700 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
IRNA did not report whether any Guard members were injured in the attack.
The Revolutionary Guard is pursing the attackers it calls “terrorists,” but they remain at large. No group has taken responsibility for the attack, IRNA reported.
The province bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan, one of the least developed in Iran, has been the site of occasional deadly clashes involving militant groups, armed drug smugglers and Iranian security forces.
In August, Iran’s security forces killed 13 militants in three separate operations in the province a week after the group killed five policemen who were on patrol.
