The personnel from Bangladesh were deployed under a mission in the disputed Abyei area in the war-torn African state
Six Bangladeshi peacekeepers have been killed in a drone strike on a United Nations logistics base in Sudan’s South Kordofan state, officials said on Sunday.
The attack on Saturday in Kadugli wounded eight other peacekeepers, according to UN statements. The troops served with the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), a mission deployed to the disputed Abyei area along the Sudan-South Sudan border.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned the incident as “horrific” and “unjustifiable,” warning that “attacks targeting United Nations peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law.”
The mission held a ceremony on Monday in honor of those killed.
Sudan’s army-backed government issued a statement on Saturday, accusing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of the strike, calling it a “flagrant breach of the protection guaranteed to UN facilities.”
The RSF, however, has rejected the accusation as “lies,” saying it reflected “a desperate and pathetic attempt to fabricate false accusations against [its] forces.”
The incident comes as drone attacks escalate in and around Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state, where violent clashes have reportedly raged between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF in a war nearing its third year.
More than 40,000 people are estimated to have been killed since the conflict erupted amid alleged atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings, particularly in Darfur.
UN operations have faced other security incidents during the war, including the detention of more than 60 UNISFA peacekeepers and the abduction of civilian personnel during an attack and looting of a logistics convoy.
UNISFA has been deployed in the oil-rich Abyei since 2011, when South Sudan gained independence from Sudan. The territory has remained contested ever since. Nearly 4,000 military and police personnel serve with the mission, according to UN figures, tasked with supporting the delivery of humanitarian aid and protecting civilians.
On Saturday, Guterres urged the warring parties “to agree on an immediate cessation of hostilities and to resume talks to reach a lasting ceasefire and a comprehensive, inclusive and Sudanese-owned political process.”
