Zürcher Nachrichten - Drone strike in southern Sudan kills 6 UN peacekeepers

The United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) said "six troops were killed and six injured", including four seriously, when a drone hit their camp in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state.

All of the victims are from Bangladesh, it said.

UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned the "horrific" attack, saying it "may constitute war crimes under international law".

"Attacks as the one today in South Kordofan against peacekeepers are unjustifiable. There will need to be accountability," he said in a statement.

Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus in a statement said he was "deeply saddened" by the attack, and put the toll at six dead and eight wounded.

He asked the UN to ensure that his country's personnel were offered "any necessary emergency support".

"The government of Bangladesh will stand by the families in this difficult moment," Yunus added.

Dhaka's foreign ministry said it "strongly condemned" the attack.

UN peacekeepers are deployed to Abyei, a disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan.

- Fires blazing -

A medical source had earlier told AFP that the strike on a United Nations facility in Kadugli killed at least six people, with witnesses saying they were UN employees.

"Six people were killed in a bombing of the UN headquarters while they were inside the building," the medical source at the city's hospital said.

Eyewitnesses said a drone had hit the UN facility.

The Sudanese army published a video on its Facebook page showing fires blazing and two columns of smoke rising from the UNISFA base.

The army-aligned government based in Port Sudan issued a statement condemning the attack and accusing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of being behind it.

In a statement, the Sovereignty Council headed by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan called the attack a "dangerous escalation".

The RSF in a statement on Telegram said it rejected "the claims and allegations... regarding an air attack that targeted the United Nations headquarters in Kadugli, and the accompanying false accusations against our forces of being behind it through the use of a drone".

Meanwhile, Sudanese Prime Minister Kamil Idris said that "the terrorist rebel militia has met all the conditions to be classified as a terrorist group", and urged the UN to "bring the perpetrators to justice".

Kadugli, where famine was declared in early November, has been besieged for a year and a half by the RSF.

- Strategic position -

Following their late-October capture of El-Fasher -- the army's last stronghold in Sudan's western Darfur region -- the RSF have pushed eastward into the oil-rich Kordofan region, divided into three states.

Kordofan is a vast agricultural region that lies between RSF-controlled Darfur in the west and army-held areas in the north, east and centre.

Its position is important for maintaining supply lines and moving troops.

The RSF has been at war with the military since April 2023 and has deployed fighters, drones and allied militias to the fertile region.

Analysts say the RSF seek to punch through the army's defences around central Sudan, paving the way for recapturing Khartoum.

Last week, strikes on a kindergarten and hospital in Kalogi in South Kordofan killed 114 people, including 63 children, according to the UN's World Health Organization.

Sudan's war has so far killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and resulted in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Efforts to end the war have so far failed.

Last month, US President Donald Trump said he would move to end the conflict following discussions in Washington with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but the initiative has yet to materialise.

ab-nda-sa-ash/jsa/srm

M.Hug--NZN