CAIRO: An aid convoy was hit by drone strikes, killing three people and wounding four aid workers as it traveled to cities in central Sudan’s Kordofan region, the epicenter of fighting between the army and its rival paramilitary forces, a local doctors’ group said.
Sudan Doctors Network, a group that monitors violence in Sudan, said on X that the trucks were carrying food and humanitarian supplies to the city of Kadugli and the town of Dilling in South Kordofan when they were struck in the Kartala area by drones it said belonged to the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.
It was not immediately clear which aid organization the convoy was affiliated with.
The war between the RSF and the Sudanese military erupted into a full-blown war across the country in April 2023.
So far, at least 40,000 people have been killed and 12 million displaced, according to the World Health Organization.
Aid groups say the true war death toll could be many times higher, as the fighting in vast and remote areas impedes access.
Most recently, the fight has been centered in Kordofan, where aid groups and analysts report an increase in drone strikes that hampered aid operations and took a toll on civilians, despite the army saying it seized control and broke the siege of Kadugli and Dilling.
At least 77 people were killed in various attacks in Kordofan due to drone warfare in February.
A UN convoy reached Dilling and Kadugli with aid for more than 130,000 people, the first major delivery in three months, UN agencies say.
However, aid workers are concerned about escalating violence.
Thursday’s strike on the aid convoy is the second such incident in less than a month, according to Sudan Doctors Network.
Earlier this month, an attack hit a World Food Programme aid convoy in North Kordofan.
On Thursday, a UN-backed fact-finding mission determined in a report that evidence of crimes committed in late October by the RSF in El-Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur, showed “hallmarks of genocide.”
Following the release of the report, the US sanctioned three RSF commanders for their actions in El-Fasher and called on the group to commit to an immediate ceasefire, the US Treasury Department said.
The fact-finding mission warned that “urgent protection of civilians is needed, now more than ever” in Kordofan state.
“The scale, coordination, and public endorsement of the operation by senior RSF leadership demonstrate that the crimes committed in and around El-Fasher were not random excesses of war,” said mission chairman Mohammed Chande Othman.
“They formed part of a planned and organized operation that bears the defining characteristics of genocide.”
The UN Human Rights Council established the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan in October 2023 to begin gathering evidence of violations.
The mission interviewed 320 witnesses and victims from El-Fasher and the surrounding areas, including in investigative visits to Chad and South Sudan.
It authenticated, verified and corroborated 25 videos.
Survivors spoke of widespread killings, including indiscriminate shootings and mass executions at exit points.
They described seeing roads filled with the bodies of men, women ,and children, the mission said.
