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Aid workers in Darfur continue to be target of attacks, reports UN mission

Aid workers in Darfur continue to be target of attacks, reports UN mission

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The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) reports that attacks against humanitarian personnel are continuing in Darfur, where some 13,000 relief workers are trying to assist nearly four million people affected by violence.

A vehicle belonging to a non-governmental organization (NGO) was hijacked by armed bandits on Monday in the area of the Kassab camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in North Darfur. The driver of the vehicle, who was taken by the hijackers together with the truck, has been located but the vehicle is still missing.

Three armed men hijacked at gunpoint a UN vehicle in El Fasher on the same day. Sudanese police pursued the hijackers but their attempt to stop the vehicle was unsuccessful. Efforts are ongoing to recover the vehicle.

Meanwhile, in South Darfur, three armed men hijacked a NGO vehicle in Nyala on 30 September. Two staff members on board the vehicle were forcibly taken and detained for three days by the hijackers.

They were subsequently released and contacted the NGO on 2 October from a police station some 30 kilometres north of Nyala. One staff member was admitted to Nyala hospital for with serious head injury.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), attacks against the relief community have increased by 150 per cent in the past year, threatening the lifeline to an ever-increasing number of people affected by the fighting which began four years ago between the Sudanese Government forces, allied Janjaweed militias and rebel groups.