KHARTOUM, Sudan
Sudanese gunmen have looted a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse containing some 1,900 tonnes of food aid in Darfur amid a surge of violence in the troubled western region, officials said Wednesday.
Residents of El-Fasher, the capital of North
Darfur state, reported heavy shooting near the warehouse late Tuesday.
"We heard intense gunfire," Mohamed
Salem told AFP.
A WFP official said they were "conducting
an audit into what was stolen from the warehouse, which contain some 1,900
tonnes of food products".
Darfur has seen a spike in conflict since
October triggered by disputes over land, livestock and access to water and
grazing, with some 250 people reported killed in fighting between herders and
farmers in recent months.
Tens of thousands have been forced to flee
their homes, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
Sudan is also reeling from political turbulence
in the wake of a coup led military chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on
October 25.
Last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres condemned looting and violence near a former UN logistics base in
El-Fasher that had been recently handed over to the local authorities.
Over 14 million people, a third of Sudan's
population, will need humanitarian aid next year, according to the UN Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the highest level for a decade.
Darfur was ravaged by a civil war that erupted
in 2003, pitting ethnic minority rebels who complained of discrimination
against the Arab-dominated government.
More than 300,000 people died and 2.5 million
were displaced during the conflict, according to the UN.
While the main conflict in Darfur has subsided,
with a peace deal struck with key rebel groups last year, the arid region has
remained awash with weapons and violence often erupts.
A joint UN and African Union mission, UNAMID,
ended 13 years of peacekeeping operations last December. - AFP
No comments:
Post a Comment