The United Nations peacekeeping force in the contested Abyei region said Thursday it is evacuating a key logistics base in Sudan after a drone strike killed six peacekeepers and wounded nine others last week, all from Bangladesh.
The United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) said it informed Sudanese authorities of the decision to pull out of Kadugli following an extensive security review. The mission stated the situation has “disabled the capacity for the UN to function in the area.”
The attack on the Kadugli base occurred Saturday.
In a statement extended to Radio Tamazuj, UNISFA said it remains committed to monitoring the border between Sudan and South Sudan but will only reconsider returning to Kadugli “when the situation permits.”
Sudan’s army-aligned government, based in Port Sudan, condemned the strike and accused the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of carrying it out. The Sovereign Council, headed by army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, called it a “dangerous escalation.”
The RSF, which has been at war with the Sudanese military since April 2023, denied the allegation. In a Telegram statement, it rejected “false accusations against our forces of being behind it through the use of a drone.”
The war between Sudan’s military and the RSF has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
UNISFA was established in 2011 to oversee the volatile Abyei region, which is claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan.