2 WFP workers killed in Sudan
2008-04-10 12:25
Khartoum - Gunmen shot dead a driver and his assistant delivering United Nations food aid in south Sudan, bringing to five the number of people killed in such attacks in 16 days, the World Food Programme said on Thursday.
Unknown assailants on Monday shot and killed Hamid Dafaalla, a 47-year-old father of four, behind the wheel of his truck in Unity State after he delivered humanitarian food supplies to the town of Rumbek, the UN agency said.
His assistant was shot dead while trying to flee the attack, six kilometres from Mayom town, not far from where two WFP-contracted drivers were stabbed to death on 22 March.
The area was considered volatile. Unity State bordered the contested oil-rich area of Abyei, claimed by north and south Sudan and where political tensions and troop numbers had risen in recent weeks.
Killings 'jeopardise' WFP's ability
The recent spate of killings in the south, which was hugely under-developed and still reeling from a two-decade civil war with the north, threatened WFP's ability to help those returning home since the 2005 peace agreement.
"The killings in southern Sudan to provide returnees... with food and threaten the pre-positioning of food assistance ahead of the rainy season starting in May," the UN agency said.
A fifth WFP-contracted driver was shot dead on March 24 while delivering food to Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state.
"Insecurity on the roads in areas where we operate presents not only a serious threat to the drivers, but also to vulnerable people who depend on this food for their survival," said Ebenezer Tagoe, WFP Sudan deputy director.
In March, the WFP said escalating banditry had halved food deliveries in Darfur, the western region of Sudan torn apart by more than five years of civil conflict between the government, Khartoum-backed militias and rebels.
Since January, WFP had reported 60 hijackings of trucks in Darfur, with 42 trucks missing and 29 drivers unaccounted for, in addition to the five killings in the past three weeks.