ADDS STATEMENT FROM SUDANESE ARMY, DETAILS
By SM Najmus Sakib, Adel Abdelrheem and Rania Abu Shamala
DHAKA, Bangladesh/KHARTOUM, Sudan/ISTANBUL (AA) - Six Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed and eight injured in "a drone attack by terrorists” on a UN base in Abyei in southern Sudan, the head of Bangladesh’s interim government said Saturday.
In a statement, Muhammad Yunus expressed shock about the incident. “The United Nations has already been requested to take urgent measures to ensure the highest level of medical treatment and necessary assistance to the injured peacekeepers,” he said.
Earlier, in a statement on US social media platform Facebook, the army said fighting was still ongoing.
Later, the Sudanese army said that “continuing its criminal approach, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia targeted the headquarters of the UN mission and the Bangladeshi contingent in the city of Kadugli using a strategic drone, firing three missiles from the drone.”
It said the “treacherous attack” resulted in the burning of a UN mission warehouse and killing six personnel, with seven others injured, all from the Bangladeshi contingent.
The army described the targeting of the UN mission headquarters as “a criminal act that constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and of UN resolutions protecting peacekeeping forces and UN facilities, and clearly exposes the destructive approach of the rebel militia and those backing it.”
Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council strongly condemned the attack as “a serious breach of the protection afforded to UN facilities and a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”
It said that “targeting a protected UN facility represents a dangerous escalation and criminal behavior that amounts to an organized terrorist act, revealing a deliberate disregard for international law and a direct threat to the work of humanitarian and international missions.”
The Council held the RSF “fully responsible for the attack” and urged the UN and the international community to take “firm positions and deterrent measures to ensure the protection of UN facilities and humanitarian workers, and to hold the perpetrators accountable under international law.”
As of 1900GMT, the RSF had not issued any comment about the incident.
The attack is the first of its kind to target the UN mission deployed to the disputed Abyei region between Sudan and South Sudan since the outbreak of the war between the army and the RSF in April 2023.
Kadugli has been under siege imposed by the RSF and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement since the early months of the war, and has been subjected to repeated artillery and drone attacks, according to human rights organizations.
There was no immediate comment from the UN mission.
The United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) peacekeeping mission was deployed in 2011.
The oil-rich Abyei Administrative Area is administered by South Sudan and Sudan, with both claiming stakes and having been embroiled in conflict for years.
The mission mandate was renewed last month.