Sudanese gunmen have looted a UN World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse containing about 1,900 tonnes of food aid in Darfur amid a surge of violence in the western region, officials said on Wednesday.
Residents of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, reported heavy shooting near the warehouse late on Tuesday, and the local authorities have imposed a nighttime curfew on the town after the attack, the Sudan News Agency reported.
“We heard intense gunfire,” local resident Mohamed Salem said.
Photo: Reuters
A WFP official said the organization “is conducting an audit into what was stolen from the warehouse, which contained about 1,900 tonnes of food products,” intended to be lifesaving supplies for some of the most vulnerable people.
“One in three people in Sudan needs humanitarian assistance,” UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Khardiata Lo N’Diaye said. “Humanitarian assistance should never be a target.”
On Twitter, Darfur Governor Mini Minawi denounced a “barbaric act,” saying that those responsible would “face justice.”
The vast, arid and impoverished region awash with guns is still reeling from a conflict that broke out under former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir in 2003, leaving hundreds of thousands dead.
The unrest pitted ethnic minority rebels, who complained of discrimination, against the Arab-dominated al-Bashir government. Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed militia, blamed for atrocities, including murder, rape, looting and burning villages.
Thousands of Janjaweed were later integrated into the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the No. 2 in Sudan’s ruling council.
Al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide in Darfur. He was ousted and jailed in April 2019 after mass protests against his three-decade rule.
While the main conflict in Darfur has subsided under a peace deal struck with key rebel groups last year, violence continues to erupt.
The region has seen a spike in conflict since October, triggered by disputes over land, livestock, and access to water and grazing, with about 250 people killed in fighting between herders and farmers.
The violence has occurred while Sudan reels from political turbulence in the wake of a coup led by military chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Oct. 25.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week condemned looting and reported violence near a former UN logistics base in El Fasher that had been handed over to the local authorities days earlier.
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