Statement of Condemnation on the Air Attack on a World Food Programme Convoy in South Kordofan

Press Statement
Ref.: SE-ST-2026-002 | Date: 10 October 2026 | Place: Nairobi, Kenya
Statement of Condemnation on the Air Attack on a World Food Programme Convoy in South Kordofan
The Shahid Platform for Digital Evidence and Human Rights Documentation condemns in the strongest terms the air attack that targeted two trucks contracted by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) while they were transporting food assistance from the town of Dilling to Kadugli in South Kordofan State, in the early hours of Saturday, 3 October 2026.
According to official information released by WFP, the attack killed one of the truck drivers. Both vehicles bore clear markings identifying their humanitarian nature and were carrying food intended for people facing extremely harsh humanitarian conditions as a result of war, siege and food shortages.
Targeting humanitarian workers and relief transport is not an attack on the convoy alone; it is a direct attack on the thousands of civilians who depend on this assistance to survive. Every aid truck that is bombed or blocked means children, women, the sick and the displaced are deprived of food, medicine and basic necessities.
Shahid notes that this attack was not the first incident on the Dilling–Kadugli road. On 30 August 2026, two WFP trucks were hit in an air attack outside Dilling, destroying more than fifty tonnes of food — enough to provide life-saving assistance to around 5,800 people for a full month.
Repeated attacks on humanitarian convoys raise serious concern that there is a pattern aimed at disrupting the delivery of food to civilians. This requires an urgent international investigation covering not only the latest incident but all attacks on humanitarian workers and relief convoys in South Kordofan and other conflict areas.
The platform stresses that humanitarian personnel, transport, warehouses and assistance intended for civilians are protected under international humanitarian law. Intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations or vehicles involved in humanitarian assistance missions may amount to a war crime where its legal elements are established.
Accordingly, Shahid calls for:
1. An immediate, independent international investigation to determine the nature of the attack, the weapon used, its point of launch, and who planned and carried it out.
2. Preservation and examination of munition remnants and the means of attack, drawing on satellite imagery and radar, flight and communications records to establish responsibility precisely.
3. Safe access to the site for WFP, the United Nations and independent investigators, and the opportunity to hear witnesses, staff and survivors without interference or intimidation.
4. Accountability for anyone proven to have ordered, planned, carried out or directly supported the attack, with no military or political official granted immunity from accountability.
5. Practical, public guarantees to protect humanitarian convoys and relief workers, and safe, rapid and regular corridors for delivering assistance to the people of South Kordofan.
6. A commitment by all parties to the conflict not to use humanitarian assistance, or the routes leading to it, as a means of military pressure, starvation or collective punishment.
Shahid calls on the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan to include this incident and previous attacks on relief convoys in its investigations, and to examine whether they constitute an organised pattern of obstructing aid and targeting civilians and humanitarian workers.
It also calls on the Security Council, the African Union, the European Union and international human rights organisations to move beyond verbal condemnation to practical measures that guarantee the protection of humanitarian convoys, prevent further attacks, and bring those responsible to justice.
Killing a driver while he was carrying out his duty of delivering food to the hungry is a crime that cannot be treated as an incidental effect of war. Protecting humanitarian workers and securing access for aid is a legal and moral obligation, and no attack on them should pass without investigation and accountability.
Shahid extends its sincere condolences to the driver's family, his colleagues and WFP staff, and renews its solidarity with all humanitarian workers who risk their lives to save civilians in Sudan.

Shahid Platform for Digital Evidence and Human Rights Documentation
10 October 2026