Deadly drone strike hits UN facility in Sudan, killing six peacekeepers

A deadly drone strike tore through a United Nations facility in Kadugli, the capital of Sudan’s South Kordofan state, killing at least six UN peacekeepers and wounding several others, Sudanese authorities said, in one of the deadliest attacks on international forces since the country’s war began.

Sudan’s Armed Forces (SAF) accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of carrying out the attack, a charge the RSF swiftly denied. Xinhua news agency reported that the strike hit a UN headquarters complex, plunging the area into chaos and flames.

According to an SAF statement, the drone fired three missiles at the UN base and the Bangladesh Battalion, igniting a UN storage facility. All those killed or wounded were members of the Bangladeshi contingent serving with the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), which operates in the disputed border region between Sudan and South Sudan.

Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, which backs the SAF, condemned what it described as an RSF drone attack on protected UN premises, calling it a grave breach of international humanitarian law.

“Targeting a protected UN facility represents a dangerous escalation and criminal behavior amounting to an organized terrorist act,” the council said, warning that such attacks pose a direct threat to humanitarian and international missions. It held the RSF “fully responsible” and urged the United Nations and the wider international community to act decisively to protect peacekeepers and hold those responsible accountable.

The RSF rejected the accusations as “baseless,” denying any aerial attack on the UN facility. In a statement, it said its record was “entirely free” of attacks on international organizations and claimed it had previously worked to protect UN sites and humanitarian personnel, calling on international bodies to verify information carefully.

United Nations secretary-general António Guterres strongly condemned the attack, describing it as an assault on the very foundations of international peacekeeping. In a statement issued Saturday, he confirmed that six peacekeepers were killed and eight wounded — all members of the Bangladeshi contingent.

Guterres offered his “deepest and heartfelt condolences” to the government and people of Bangladesh and to the families of the fallen, while wishing a swift recovery to the injured.

“Attacks targeting United Nations peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law,” he said, reminding all parties to the conflict of their obligation to protect UN personnel and civilians. “There will need to be accountability.”

The UN chief renewed his call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and urged Sudan’s warring parties to return to talks aimed at securing a lasting ceasefire and a comprehensive, inclusive, Sudanese-led political process.

Sudan has been engulfed in a brutal conflict since 15 April 2023, when fighting erupted between the SAF and the RSF, a war that has killed tens of thousands and driven millions from their homes, both within the country and across its borders.

With IANS inputs