UN CONDEMNS DELIBERATE AND CONCERTED ATTACK ON AID WORKERS IN SOUTHERN SUDAN

UN CONDEMNS DELIBERATE AND CONCERTED ATTACK

ON AID WORKERS IN SOUTHERN SUDAN

NAIROBI/KHARTOUM, 27 February (OCHA) -- Eight United Nations and non-governmental staff were deliberately targeted in a sustained attack by armed militia during a relief operation in Nimnim, Western Upper Nile in southern Sudan on 20 February.  The United Nations strongly condemns the attack and calls on the Government of the Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) to identify, detain and prosecute the perpetrators.

“This direct, deliberate and sustained attack on aid workers is outrageous and intolerable.  Attacks on humanitarian workers in conflict situations are war crimes”, said United Nations Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sudan, Bernt Aasen.  The attack has led to the suspension of humanitarian relief activities to about 30,000 people in the area.  Fortunately, none of the aid team was injured and they were relocated out of the area the same day.  The deliberate targeting of aid workers by paramilitary forces on the ground is exceptional in southern Sudan and the United Nations in the Sudan regards the incident as shocking and disturbing.

The emergency response team was led by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and included the United Nations World Food Programme, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, World Vision International, a United Nations security officer and an official of the relief wing of the SPLM.  Three of the team were international staff, while the rest were Sudanese citizens.  They were completing a four-day mission to deliver much-needed food and other aid (blankets, cooking sets, soap and other family survival items) to about 13,500 war-affected people in the remote Nimnim area (northeast of Bentiu) when they came under rifle, machine-gun, rocket-propelled grenade and mortar fire from unidentified militia forces.  The attack was directed only at the aid workers’ temporary compound, where they had been staying for three days and at the relief workers while they were fleeing, but not the village itself.  Tents and aid stores in the compound were directly hit.

The attack started at about 7:30 a.m., with gunfire directed towards a residential enclosure where the aid workers were camped some distance from the village.  The aid workers fled the immediate area on foot, still targeted by gunfire, as local SPLA forces, which nominally control the area, counter-attacked.  Local people were also forced to flee temporarily.  The attack ended after about 20 minutes of intense and sustained shooting.  Sufficient calm was restored to enable a United Nations aircraft to pull out the team later in the morning.  The area is now off-limits to aid workers of the Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) consortium.  The OLS has grouped six United Nations agencies and over 40 non-governmental agencies in extensive relief and recovery operations on both sides of Sudan’s 20-year civil war since 1989.

Planned follow-up activities in the areas of food security, health, agriculture, livestock and water supply have had to be shelved indefinitely across several locations in Western Upper Nile.  Plans for this year’s round of mass polio immunization in the area are also in doubt.

Western Upper Nile is one of the most conflict-affected areas in southern Sudan.  However, aid operations were restarting in the Guit County area around Nimnim following a period of relative calm and the realignment of some militia leaders to the SPLM/A as peace negotiations between the Government of the Sudan and the SPLM/A have progressed.

The last major incident of this kind in southern Sudan took place over 18 months ago.  A Kenyan health worker with World Vision International, Charles Kibe, was killed by militia forces on 29 July 2002 while working in another part of Upper Nile.  Those responsible for his death have not yet been prosecuted.  In February 2002, a Sudanese health worker with Médecins sans Frontières was killed in a bombing raid also on Nimnim.

Last August, the United Nations Security Council condemned attacks on humanitarian aid workers in resolution 1502 and stated that “there are existing prohibitions under international law against attacks knowingly and intentionally directed against personnel involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission, which in situations of armed conflict constitute war crimes”, and called on States “to end impunity for such criminal acts”.

For further information, contact: Ben Parker, Spokesperson for the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, mobile: +254 733 609869.

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