United Nations, Dec 14 (IANS) Six Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed in a drone attack on a UN logistics base in Sudan, according to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The attack on Saturday was carried out in the Abeyi region by the Rapid Support Forces, a rebel militant group battling Sudan’s defence forces, according to the Khartoum government of President Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burha, an Army general.
Guterres condemned the killings, which he said may be war crimes under international law.
“Attacks as the one today in South Kordofan against peacekeepers, are unjustifiable,” he said. “There will need to be accountability.”
The head of UN Peacekeeping, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, said eight Bangladeshi peacekeepers, who are among the 512 from that country deployed in Abeyi, were injured.
There were no reports of casualties among the 596 Indians deployed in the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), which has a multi-national contingent of 3,002 troops.
So far, 16 peacekeepers have been killed in the UNISFA operation that was launched in 2011 to monitor the situation in the oil-rich Abeyi region claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan.
Other actors, like the RSF, have exacerbated the situation.
The attackers targeted the UN logistics base that houses a warehouse in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan State.
The warehouse was destroyed, according to reports and social media posts showing smoke billowing from it.
According to the UN, violent clashes have raged in South Kordofan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF for nearly three years.
About 15,000 people have died in the conflict between the two across Sudan.
The RSF was an outgrowth of the dreaded Islamist Janjaweed militant group that was once backed by Sudan’s government during the Darfur conflict involving several rebel groups fighting it.
It was later reconstituted as the RSF and eventually turned against the government, becoming a powerful force trying to oust the Khartoum government of al-Burha.
–IANS
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