convoy

The attack is the second in the past three months to prevent a UN aid convoy from delivering to North Dafur.

A drone attack has hit a convoy of 16 trucks carrying desperately needed food to Sudan‘s famine-hit North Darfur region, the United Nations said, as warring parties trade blame for the attack.

UN spokesperson Daniela Gross told reporters on Thursday that all drivers and personnel travelling with the World Food Programme (WFP) convoy were safe.

At least three of the trucks caught fire, according to a WFP statement quoted by the Reuters news agency. Gross said all trucks had caught fire, according to The Associated Press news agency.

It was not yet clear who was responsible for Wednesday’s attack, the second in the past three months to prevent a UN convoy from delivering to North Darfur.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) accused the Sudanese army of hitting the convoys as part of a drone attack on Mellit market and other areas. The army later said in a statement that this was a fabrication to distract from what it termed the RSF’s crimes.

In early June, a convoy from the WFP and the UN agency for children, UNICEF, was attacked while awaiting clearance to proceed to North Darfur’s besieged capital, el-Fasher, killing five people and injuring several others.

Edem Wosornu, of UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said some 70 trucks of supplies were waiting in the RSF-controlled city of Nyala to get to el-Fashir, but security guarantees were needed as humanitarian workers were coming under attack.

The attack came as several countries, including the United States, Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Egypt, voiced alarm at the worsening hunger situation in war-torn Sudan, calling for pauses in fighting to let in more aid.

The war in Sudan began in April 2023, when violence caused by long-simmering tensions between its military and the paramilitary RSF erupted in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions, including western Darfur.

Some 40,000 people have been killed and nearly 13 million displaced, UN agencies say. Nearly 25 million people are experiencing acute hunger.

The RSF and their allies announced in late June that they had formed a parallel government in areas they control, mainly in the vast Darfur region, where allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity are being investigated.

The RSF has encircled el-Fasher, where the UN says people are facing starvation. It is the only capital the paramilitary forces don’t hold in Darfur, which is comprised of five states.

An estimated 300,000 remaining residents in the city have been subjected to a long siege as fighting rages.

Last year, a famine was declared in the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur. The risk of famine has since spread to 17 areas in Darfur and the Kordofan region, which is adjacent to North Darfur and west of Khartoum, according to the UN.

WFP spokesperson Gift Watanasathorn urged the warring parties to “respect international humanitarian law”. “Humanitarian staff and assets must never be a target,” Watanasathorn said.

Syrian security forces are preparing to redeploy to Suwayda to quell fighting between the Druze and Bedouin tribes, the Syrian Interior Ministry spokesperson has said.

Israel has previously warned the Syrian government to withdraw from the south and its forces carried out an attack Friday on Syria’s Palmyra-Homs highway, targeting a convoy of Bedouin fighters who were reportedly making their way towards restive Suwayda in the south of the country, according to Israel’s public broadcaster Kan News.

This comes just two days after Israel carried out heavy attacks on Damascus.

Bedouin fighters in Syria said they launched a new offensive against Druze fighters late on Thursday, despite the withdrawal of Syrian government forces from the southwestern province of Suwayda, and an attempt by the Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to draw a line under a recent eruption of deadly violence that killed hundreds.

A Bedouin military commander told the Reuters news agency that the truce only applied to government forces and not to them, adding that the fighters were seeking to free Bedouins whom Druze armed groups had detained in recent days.

Bedouin fighters have managed to reach the Suwayda area in the last few hours, the Kan report said, confirming earlier reports from Arabic-language news media.

Syria’s leadership has condemned Israel’s attacks as a violation of its sovereignty amid attempts to cement a ceasefire between Bedouin and Druze fighters.

Israel has justified its latest bombing of Syria under the pretext that it is protecting the Druze minority. But the country has more self-serving reasons.

Israel has long attacked Syria, even before the latest outbreak of violence involving the Druze in Suwayda.

Since the removal of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad after a devastating 14-year war, Israel has struck Syria hundreds of times and invaded and occupied about 400sq km (155sq miles) of its territory, excluding the western Golan Heights, which it has occupied since 1967.

Leading analysts within Israel suggest that these latest attacks may not have been entirely motivated by concern for the welfare of the Druze, so much as the personal and political aims of the Israeli government and its embattled prime minister.

The latest reports of violence come despite a ceasefire agreed on Wednesday, after Israel had conducted its own attacks on Syria, striking the Ministry of Defence and near the presidential palace in Damascus.

Al-Sharaa said in a televised speech on Thursday that protecting the country’s Druze citizens and their rights was a priority as he announced that local leaders would take control of security in Suwayda in a bid to end sectarian violence in the south and stop Israel from attacking.

Sheikh Hikmat Al Hijri, one of the spiritual leaders of the Syrian Druze community said, ” We are not sectarian, and we have never wanted to cause division. We hold full responsibility for anyone who tampers with security and stability. We affirm that whoever engages in sabotage or incitement represents only himself, and we reject that his actions be attributed to any sect or region.”

Condemnation from Qatar, Turkiye; US ‘did not support Israeli strikes’

In the meantime, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has condemned Israel’s days of attacks on Syria in a phone conversation with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

The emir described Israel’s bombing of Syria as a “flagrant violation” of the country’s sovereignty, international law, the United Nations Charter, “and a threat to regional stability”, according to a statement from Sheikh Tamim’s office on Friday.

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that Turkiye would not allow Syria to be divided or its multicultural structure and territorial integrity harmed, after Israel’s actions sought to “sabotage” a ceasefire in the country.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Syrian leader al-Sharaa discussed Israel’s attacks on Damascus in a phone call on Thursday, the presidency said, adding Erdogan had voiced support for Damascus.

Turkiye played a crucial role in securing a ceasefire in Syria following Israeli air attacks on Damascus. Turkish intelligence officials held talks with Syria’s Druze leader, a Turkish security source said on Thursday.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce has said the United States condemns violence in Syria and called on the Syrian government to lead the path forward.

“We are engaging diplomatically with Israel and Syria at the highest levels, both to address the present crisis and reach a lasting agreement between the two sovereign states,” she said on Thursday.

Bruce continued that “regarding Israel’s intervention and activity” in Syria, the US “did not support recent Israeli strikes”.

It was unclear if Bruce’s comments referred to just US logistical support for the Israeli military’s attacks against Syria.

Hundreds of Tunisian and Algerian activists launched a convoy from Tunis Monday to reach Gaza via Egypt’s Rafah crossing. The effort aims to deliver aid and break Israel’s blockade, as tons of humanitarian supplies pile up at the border crossing in Arish.