NEW YORK: Two hours after a Rapid Support Forces drone strike hit a convoy of World Food Programme trucks transporting aid to displaced families in North Kordofan, Denise Brown, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, drove past the smoldering wreckage.
The vehicles, contracted by the UN, had caught fire, destroying food intended for thousands of starving civilians. One person died and several others were injured in the attack on February 6.
Brown had once again witnessed firsthand the fragility of aid operations and the extreme hazards confronting humanitarian personnel in a country entering its third year of conflict.
“We lost UN colleagues killed. National NGO colleagues killed,” Brown told Arab News from Port Sudan. “It’s a constant refrain here; this is a dangerous business. The work we’re doing is in a high-risk context, but it’s where the world expects the UN to be. So we are there.
“And I am not saying it’s easy. I’m not saying we don’t have moments. When I went past those trucks, I was like, uh-oh. It was very close. So you have those moments. We start thinking maybe we need to go back? No. Absolutely not.
