NGO staffers killed, convoys ambushed in Darfur – UN

July 22, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Four aid workers and four civilians were killed, several others injured and humanitarian convoys ambushed in a string of incidents this week in Sudan’s troubled western region of Darfur, the United Nations said Saturday,

Sudanese workers of the humanitarian organization Care International prepare food for Care feeding Centers in Nyala town in Sudan’s south Darfur region.(.

The UN mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said the incidents forced agencies to withdraw from some camps for the displaced.

Three staffers of an international international non-governmental organisation (INGO) were attacked and killed in Hassa Hissa camp in Zalingei, West Darfur, on Thursday, it said.

The report did not identify the NGO nor the nationalities of the victims, but it suggested they were Sudanese as one of them was from the Zaghawa tribe.

Six members of the NGO visited Hassa Hissa and met with internally displaced persons “to address serious allegations that they were trying to poison them (the displaced) inside the camp”, it said.

“Fighting broke out at the meeting and three INGO staff were trapped in the camp and were beaten and kicked, resulting in their deaths.”

The UN report said that three civilians were killed and 17 others injured in an attack by armed men Wednesday on a commercial vehicle heading to Al-Fasher.

Also on Wednesday, 15 armed men attacked a convoy of three buses transporting passengers from Nyala to Al-Fasher, killing one person and wounding 14 others.

The UNMIS report said unidentified armed men the same day shot and killed an NGO driver driving a commercial vehicle in South Darfur.

An INGO convoy between Golo and Guildo in Jebel Marra area was ambushed by 11 armed men, it said. Personal belongings, including Thuraya satellite phones, were looted and the INGO team beaten up but without causing serious injury.

(ST)