The Damazin Teaching Hospital in Sudan’s Blue Nile state received ten dead bodies Monday including aid workers of the Sudanese Red Crescent Society and soldiers from the Sudanese Armed Frorces, a source told Radio Tamazuj.
The dead bodies were brought by a military convoy following an ambush along the Sali-Kurmuk road by gunmen suspected to be from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) rebel group.
The SPLA-N said that it ambushed troops of the Sudan Armed Forces between Sita Kilo and Sali area north of Kurmuk town on Sunday.
The rebel group’s spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi said in a statement that they inflicted heavy losses on the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and killed four SAF soldiers including an emir of mujahidin called Bakri Hussein.
Arnu claimed they destroyed three trucks and seized one vehicle in good condition as well as military equipments.
The statement also said that the SPLA-North rebels engaged the Sudanese army in a separate battle in which about four SAF soldiers were killed and five soldiers were captured from the rebel side.
Ahmed Mohamed Adam, head of the Sudanese Humanitarian Affairs Commission, confirmed that three Sudanese Red Crescent Society aid workers were killed in Blue Nile state while returning from the town of Kurmuk after finishing a task.
The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Adnan Khan, strongly condemned the attack, adding that the staff were part of a team monitoring the distribution of food assistance provided by the UN in Kurmuk locality.
File photo: SPLA-N soldiers in Blue Nile State (Tomo Kriznar)