(Adnkronos) – UN World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain has expressed her devastation and the humanitarian agency’s solidarity over the “unconscionable” deaths of its staff members in an air strike in southern Sudan on Thursday.
“I am shocked and heartbroken by the tragic deaths of three members of the WFP Sudan country team, who lost their lives after an aerial bombardment hit the WFP field office compound in Yabus, Blue Nile State on the evening of Thursday 19 December,” McCain said in a statement on Friday.
The head of WFP’s local field office, a programme associate, and a security guard lost their lives while saving those of others “on the frontlines of one of the world’s largest hunger crises,” said the statement.
One of the WFP staff members died immediately, while the other two were critically injured and passed away while being taken to hospital.
“Our colleagues’ families have been informed. We stand in solidarity with them and the entire WFP team at this time of grief,” McCain stated.
“Any loss of life in humanitarian service is unconscionable,” she said.
“Humanitarians are not, and must never be, a target,” McCain underlined, adding that the safety and security of WFP workers are “an absolute priority” for the UN agency.
WFP remains committed to delivering humanitarian assistance across Sudan, including in Blue Nile State, vowed McCain.
“WFP will stay and deliver vital food and nutrition aid across all locations in Sudan. This is what our fallen colleagues would have wanted,” she stated.
WFP is urgently probing Thursday’s “appalling incident”. McCain noted.
“I demand a thorough investigation and for the perpetrators to be held accountable,” she said.
