WFP condemns staffer's death

2008-05-09 17:19

Nairobi - The World Food Programme on Friday condemned the killing of an agency official working in northern Kenya, from where he co-ordinated relief operation for troubled southern Sudan.

Gunmen with AK 47 rifles shot dead 37-year-old Zimbabwean Silence Chirara late on Wednesday outside a UN compound in Lokichoggio, about 650km north of Nairobi and near the border with southern Sudan.

"We are all shocked at this savage killing of Silence Chirara and condemn it in the strongest terms. UN Security and the Kenyan police are investigating this terrible crime," said Kenro Oshidari, WFP representative in Sudan, who flew to Lokichoggio on Thursday.

Chirara, co-ordinator of WFP's logistics operation for southern Sudan, was ambushed while driving a clearly marked UN vehicle which was hit by seven bullets, the agency said in a statement.

Co-ordinate humanitarian operations

The incident was the first killing of a WFP aid worker in what has been a major relief hub for southern Sudan.

Chirara - a father of two - joined WFP in 1996 and had worked in Iraq, Guinea Bissau, Zimbabwe and Indonesia. He started working in Lokichoggio in March 2006.

The UN and other aid groups set up a base in Lokichoggio in the 1990s to co-ordinate humanitarian operations for South Sudan during a two-decade war that ended in 2005.

At least 25 people have been killed this year in bandit-related attacks in Turkana district, which neighbours the conflict-torn southern Sudan and northeastern Uganda.

- AFP