Sudanupdated 1h ago2 min read
UN Condemns Drone Strikes Killing Civilians in Blue Nile and West Kordofan
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UN condemns deadly Sudan drone strikes killing civilians and disrupting essential services. Blue Nile and West Kordofan strikes hit displaced people sheltering after fleeing.
Blue Nile and West Kordofan
The United Nations condemned drone attacks that killed at least 48 civilians in Blue Nile and West Kordofan, including women and children sheltering after fleeing their homes. Denise Brown, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said she was “horrified” by a drone strike near a displacement site in Wad El Mahi, Blue Nile State, where at least 31 civilians were killed and dozens more were injured. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs expressed deep concern over two drone strikes in West Kordofan on 9 October, including a strike in El Nuhud that reportedly killed at least 12 civilians and injured eight.
The United Nations warned that the increasing frequency of drone strikes across Sudan was exposing civilians, particularly displaced families, to further death, injury and suffering. Brown said the area, which is under the control of the Sudanese Armed Forces, had come under attack during the preceding week, after victims were displaced by recent fighting in Geissan and Kurmuk localities.
Khartoum airport and weekend toll
Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters that the UN was “alarm[ed] by the continued deadly drone strikes across the country that are killing civilians, including children, and that are disrupting central services,”. Dujarric said weekend drone attacks killed at least 19 people, including 10 children, and injured others across West Darfur, South Kordofan and North Kordofan states. Humanitarian personnel on the ground confirmed drone strikes in Khartoum on Monday, including a district near the international airport, and the strikes reportedly left one civilian dead.
Dujarric said the attacks prompted the cancellation of several commercial flights following weekend bombardments. Dujarric also said the UN was “deeply saddened” by the killing of a Sudanese Red Crescent volunteer last week when an aerial attack struck a medical facility.
Aid workers and funding pressures
The UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists in New York that “We are alarmed by the continued deadly drone strikes across the country that are killing civilians, including children, and that are disrupting essential services,”. Dujarric said the rising use of armed drones during the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces comes as 20 million people face acute hunger, with a rising risk of famine in parts of Darfur and Greater Kordofan. On Monday alone, drone strikes injured at least 19 people in a busy market in Abyei and targeted several locations in the capital, Khartoum, including an area near the airport, and one civilian was reportedly killed.
Dujarric said that since the conflict began, 25 Sudanese Red Crescent volunteers have reportedly been killed while on duty, and he called the “targeting of those who put their own lives at risk to help others in humanitarian settings” particularly heinous. Dujarric said the UN and its humanitarian partners continue to deliver crucial assistance, and he urged, “Once again, we need more funding to sustain all of these lifesaving operations,” as Sudan’s humanitarian response plan is just over 43 per cent funded.