Khartoum, Sudan – Six United Nations peacekeepers from Bangladesh were killed and eight more were wounded in a drone attack on a UN base in Sudan on Saturday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.

The drone strike hit a logistics camp of the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the ‘unjustifiable’ attack and said that such attacks ‘may constitute war crimes under international law’.

Sudan’s government and military blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for the attack.

Army chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan called the attack a ‘dangerous escalation’.

The RSF in a statement on Telegram, however, refuted the allegations as ‘false accusations’.

‘Situation still unstable’

Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus said in a statement that he was ‘deeply saddened’ by the attack and urged the UN to provide emergency support to the Bangladeshi personnel.

“The government of Bangladesh will stand by the families in this difficult moment,” Yunus added.

The Bangladesh Army released a statement saying that the ‘situation in the area is still unstable and clashes with terrorists are ongoing’.

The statement said authorities were making every effort to provide medical care and carry out rescue operations for the injured.

The humanitarian crisis in Sudan

Sudan has been wrecked by civil war since April 2023 between the military and the RSF militias.

The war has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, killing tens of thousands of people, displacing millions, and pushing parts of the country into famine.

Efforts to end the war have so far failed.

Last month, US President Donald Trump said he would work to end the conflict after talks in Washington with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but no concrete steps have followed.

DW