Five killed and several injured after attack on UN aid convoy in Sudan
Five people have been killed and several more injured after an attack on an aid convoy in the Sudanese region of North Darfur.
The number of dead was revealed in a statement from the World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF on Tuesday.
Earlier, it was reported that a UN convoy delivering food to El Fasher, North Darfur, came under attack overnight, with initial reports indicating there had been “multiple casualties”.
According to the joint statement, the convoy of 15 trucks had travelled 1,120 miles from Port Sudan – and was trying to negotiate access to El Fasher when it was targeted on Monday night.
“Multiple trucks were burned and critical humanitarian supplies were damaged in addition to the deaths and injuries,” the statement said.
Aid deliveries have regularly been caught in the crossfire of the two-year war between the Sudanese Army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, leaving more than half the Sudanese population facing acute levels of hunger.
Last week, WFP premises in El Fasher were targeted, damaging a workshop, office building, and clinic.
Several medics were killed in a separate attack on El Obeid hospital in North Kordofan last month.
A mother holds her severely malnourished child in a hospital in South Kordofan, Sudan, last year. File pic: Reuters
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The joint WFP-UNICEF statement reads: “The WFP and UNICEF condemn an attack on a joint humanitarian convoy near Al Koma, North Darfur, last night.
“Following months of escalating violence, hundreds of thousands of people in El Fasher – many of them children – are at high risk of malnutrition and starvation if supplies do not urgently reach them.
“As is standard with our humanitarian convoys, the route was shared in advance, and parties on the ground were notified and aware of the location of the trucks.
“Under international humanitarian law, aid convoys must be protected, and parties have the obligation to allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need.
“Both agencies demand an immediate end to attacks on humanitarian personnel, their facilities and vehicles – a violation under international humanitarian law.”
Grain deliveries are processed in Port Sudan in early May. File pic: AP
Humanitarian attacks continuing ‘with impunity’
The two agencies called for an “urgent investigation” into the incident and for the “perpetrators to be held to account”.
They offered their condolences to the families of those killed and their “heartfelt sympathy and support to all those injured”.
“It is devastating that the supplies have not reached the vulnerable children and families they were intended to,” the joint statement concluded.
“Attacks on humanitarian staff, aid, operations, as well as civilians and civilian infrastructure in Sudan have continued for far too long with impunity.
“WFP and UNICEF colleagues remain on the ground despite the insecurity, but call for safe, secure operating conditions and for international humanitarian law to be respected by all parties. The lives of millions in Sudan, including in locations like El Fasher in Darfur, depend on it.”
World
Bodies of husband and wife taken into Gaza by Hamas recovered after special operation by Israeli forces
The bodies of a couple taken into Gaza by Hamas during the 7 October attacks have been recovered by Israeli forces, Benjamin Netanyahu has announced.
The Israeli prime minister said the bodies of husband and wife Gad Haggai, 72, and Judi Weinstein Haggai, 70, were recovered during a special operation by the Israeli military and the country’s security agency, Shin Bet.
Mr Netanyahu said they were killed on 7 October, 2023, and their bodies were taken into Gaza by Hamas.
In a statement, he said: “Together with all the citizens of Israel, my wife and I extend our heartfelt condolences to the dear families.
“Our hearts ache for the most terrible loss. May their memory be blessed.
“We will not rest or be silent until we return all of our abductees home – the living and the dead alike.”
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The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum has been campaigning for the safe return of all Israeli citizens held hostage by Hamas.
The hostage families said in a statement: “The return of Judi and Gad is painful and heartbreaking, yet it also brings healing to our uncertainty.
“Their return reminds us all that it is the state’s duty to bring everyone home, so that we, the families, together with all the people of Israel, can begin the process of healing and recovery.
“Decision-makers must do everything necessary to reach an agreement that will return all 56 remaining hostages – the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for burial. There is no need to wait another 608 agonising days for this.
“The mission can be completed as early as tomorrow morning. This is what the majority of the Israeli people want.”
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March 2025: Thousands call for longer ceasefire deal for hostages
Most of the hostages returned alive to Israel so far have been released as part of deals with Hamas during two temporary ceasefires in late 2023 and early 2025.
The most recent ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners fell apart in March.
Israel has rejected calls for an unconditional or permanent ceasefire, saying Hamas cannot stay in Gaza.
On Wednesday, the US vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution that demanded an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza and unhindered aid access across the war-ravaged territory.
The other 14 countries on the council voted in favour of the draft.
“The United States has been clear: We would not support any measure that fails to condemn Hamas and does not call for Hamas to disarm and leave Gaza,” said Dorothy Shea, acting US ambassador to the UN, ahead of the vote.
She told the council it would also undermine ongoing US-led efforts to broker a ceasefire.
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Hamas took 251 hostages and killed more than 1,200 people in its attacks on Israel in October 2023.
Israel has responded with an air and ground assault on Gaza – and has recently escalated its bombing campaign.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 54,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the war. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel says its two war aims are to destroy Hamas and release the hostages.
President Trump has signed an order banning people from 12 countries from entering the US.
He said Sunday’s attack in Colorado had shown “the extreme dangers” of “foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come as temporary visitors and overstay their visas”.
“We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm,” the president said.
The countries affected are: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The White House said some had a “significant terrorist presence” and accused others of poor screening for dangerous individuals, as well as not accepting deported citizens.
People from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela will face partial restrictions.
Mr Trump’s proclamation said America must ensure people entering don’t have “hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles” – and don’t support terror groups.
Protests took place when Mr Trump announced his first travel ban in 2017. Pic: Reuters
The move echoes a controversial and chaotic order enacted eight years ago during his first term, when he banned people from predominately Muslim countries.
The countries initially targeted then were Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
President Trump said on Thursday that policy was a “key part of preventing major foreign terror attacks on American soil”.
His new list notably removes Syria after Mr Trump met the country’s leader recently on a trip to the Middle East.
Athletes competing in the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics will also be exempt, as will others such as permanent US residents and Afghans with special immigrant visas.
The list was put together after the president asked homeland security officials and the director of national intelligence to compile a report on countries whose citizens could pose a threat.
The ban takes effect from 9 June – but countries could be removed or added.
The proclamation states it will be reviewed within 90 days, and every 180 days after, to decide if it should be “continued, terminated, modified, or supplemented”.
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President Trump’s first travel restrictions in 2017 were criticised by opponents and human rights groups as a “Muslim ban”.
It led to some chaotic scenes, including tourists, students and business travellers prevented from boarding planes – or held at US airports when they landed.
Mr Trump denied it was Islamophobic despite calling for a ban on Muslims entering America in his first presidential campaign.
It faced legal challenges and was modified until the Supreme Court upheld a third version in June 2018, calling it “squarely within the scope of presidential authority”.
Humanitarian aid must be allowed into Gaza “at scale” by Israel to avoid a “generation of children that won’t have a chance in life,” the director of the UN’s World Food Programme has told Sky News.
In early March – before Israel resumed its military operations in the Gaza Strip – all aid was blocked from entering the region.
Despite limited aid now being distributed to Gaza through a US and Israeli-backed organisation, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire near one of the sites.
Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), has urged Israel to allow international aid to “get in and get in at scale”.
“We can’t wait for this,” she told The World with Yalda Hakim. “We need safe, unfettered, clear access all the way in and we’re not getting that right now.”
Ms McCain said people in Gaza were “starving, they’re hungry, they’re doing what they can do to feed their families”.
She added: “It’s very, very important that people realise that the only way to stave off malnutrition, catastrophic food insecurity and, of course, famine would be by complete and total access for organisations like mine.”
Ms McCain said the WFP team was “talking every day” to the Israeli government to try to resume aid deliveries.
Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis on Monday. Pic: AP
“We’re not going to give up, we do believe that it’s not only necessary but it’s urgent that we get in and get in at scale,” she said.
“We’re looking at a generation of children that won’t have a chance in life because they haven’t had the proper nutrients.
“Right now, we’re looking at over 500,000 people within Gaza that are catastrophically food insecure.”
Ms McCain added: “I try and put myself in their situation: I’m a mother and grandmother, and I cannot imagine having my children ask me for food and me not being able to give it them.
“I don’t know what that does to a human spirit but I don’t want to see any more of that as a humanitarian aid worker.”
Ms McCain, the widow of the late US presidential candidate John McCain, said she believes in “principled, humanitarian distribution” of aid.
Asked if she thought Hamas was taking aid, she replied: “I have not seen anything like that. I have no way of knowing because I’ve not been there in person.”
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How Israel’s aid plan unravelled
Aid distribution centres in Gaza were closed on Wednesday after Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli gunfire near one of its sites.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – which is endorsed by Israel – said the centres would be shut “for renovations, organisation, and efficiency improvements”. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) warned nearby roads would be considered “combat zones”.
It came after 27 Palestinians were killed while waiting for aid to be distributed in the Rafah area of southern Gaza on Tuesday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The IDF said it fired “near a few individual suspects” who left the designated route, approached its forces and ignored warning shots, about half a kilometre from the aid distribution site of the GHF. It denied shooting at civilians at the aid centre.
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That incident came two days after reports that 31 people were killed as they walked to a distribution centre run by the GHF in the Rafah area.
However the IDF said its forces “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site and that reports to this effect are false”.
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