Sudan: UN condemns killing of 3 World Food Programme staff amid outbreak of violence

The United Nations condemned the killing of three World Food Programme employees amid fighting in Sudan on Saturday, saying the three died while carrying out their duties.

Volker Perthes, the head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission (UNITAMS) said on Sunday that the three WFP employees were killed in clashes in Kabkabiya in North Darfur a day earlier.

"I also am extremely appalled by reports of projectiles hitting UN and other humanitarian premises, as well as reports of looting of UN and other humanitarian premises in several locations in Darfur," Perthes, who is also the special envoy for the UN secretary general for Sudan, added in his statement.

At least 56 civilians have been killed in an outburst of fighting between rival generals in the African nation, which has been beset by political crisis since a 2021 military coup. 

Egypt and South Sudan on Sunday offered to mediate between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who began fighting in Khartoum and towns across the country. 

In a phone call between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and South Sudan counterpart Salva Kiir on Sunday, the two most influential direct neighbors to Sudan called on both sides in the power struggle to "choose the voice of reason (and) peaceful dialgoue", the statement said.

The African Union's Peace and Security Council has called an emergency session to discuss political and security developments in Sudan, it said on Twitter.