Aid reaches Sudan’s Kordofan as over 30 countries alarmed by drone attacks 

United Nations aid trucks have reached an area in Sudan that has been cut off from relief efforts amid warnings that deadly drone strikes are making the hunger crisis in that part of the country worse.

The UN said on Wednesday that its aid trucks had reached Dilling and Kadugli, in central Sudan’s Kordofan region, with “life-saving” humanitarian supplies.

The World Food Programme (WFP) “transported more than 700 metric tons of food commodities to support nearly 70,000 people, including 21,000 mothers and children with specialized nutritious food to prevent malnutrition,” the UN said in a statement.

“Dilling and the nearby city of Kadugli have been largely cut off from aid for more than two years, leaving communities with severe shortages of humanitarian assistance,” the UN said.

The aid delivery came as more than 30 countries issued a statement on Wednesday expressing “grave concern” at a recent “severe escalation” in drone attacks amid “heavy fighting” in the Darfur and Kordofan regions.

The 28 European Union countries, plus Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, warned that “intentional attacks” against aid workers and “wilfully impeding” relief supplies, “may amount to war crimes”.

The statement was issued after 28 people were killed and dozens more injured when drone-fired missiles hit the al-Safiya market in the town of Sodari in North Kordofan state on Sunday, according to monitoring group Emergency Lawyers.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk also issued a statement on Wednesday expressing alarm at the increase in drone attacks in the conflict.

“These latest killings are yet another reminder of the devastating consequences on civilians of the escalating use of drone warfare in Sudan,” Turk said.

“They also perpetuate a pattern that we have seen time and again in this conflict of attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure, including markets, health facilities and schools,” he added.

Turk said that at least 57 civilians had been killed in separate drone attacks on Sunday and Monday in four states across Sudan, including the attack on the market in Sodari, which he said was allegedly carried out by Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

He also pointed to recent attacks attributed to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on two primary schools and a hospital.

The heavy fighting in the Kordofan region comes as the Sudanese army and the RSF fight over the country’s vital east-west axis, which links the western RSF-held Darfur region, through el-Obeid, to the army-controlled capital, Khartoum, and the rest of Sudan.

After consolidating its hold on Darfur last year, the RSF has pushed east through the oil and gold-rich Kordofan region in an attempt to seize Sudan’s central corridor.