KHARTOUM, Sudan / ISTANBUL

The Sudanese government and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) traded accusations on Tuesday of attacking an aid convoy belonging to the World Food Program (WFP) in North Darfur in western Sudan.

In a statement, the government called Monday’s attack “a deliberate attempt to obstruct humanitarian teams and hinder their mission to deliver aid to besieged citizens in El Fasher city and the nearby camps for displaced people.”

It said several guards, drivers, and civilians were killed and several UN trucks destroyed in the attack.

El-Fasher Resistance Coordination, a grassroots committee, called the attack “a war crime, and a direct assault on the most basic means of survival for millions of civilians suffering from hunger and displacement.”

The RSF, for its part, accused the Sudanese army of striking the aid convoy in the Al-Kuma area of North Darfur. It said that four people were killed, two injured, and seven trucks destroyed in the attack.

El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, has witnessed intense fighting between the Sudanese army and RSF since May 2024, despite international warnings about the risks of violence in a city that serves as a key humanitarian hub for the five Darfur states.

The RSF and the army have been locked in a brutal power struggle since April 2023, resulting in thousands of deaths and pushing Sudan into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

More than 20,000 people have been killed and 15 million displaced, according to UN and local figures. However, US-based researchers estimate the actual death toll to be as high as 130,000.