Washington, DC — The United States has suspended discussions with the government of Sudan in protest at a helicopter gunship attack on a World Food Program (WFP) food distribution center, Wednesday, in the village of Bieh, Upper Nile province, in which 17 people were killed.
"Until we receive a full and complete response from the government of Sudan, the United States is suspending all discussions with Sudan about the peace process," said State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher.
According to WFP, "The helicopter hovered over the WFP compound and fired five rockets into the surrounding area. At least 17 people waiting to receive WFP food assistance were killed and another two were seriously wounded." A press release said the agency had a team of two people present to distribute 76 tonnes of food to 10,000 people and that a large number of vulnerable people had gathered, waiting to receive food.
The attack is the third such assault on civilians in two weeks. On February 9, a Doctors Without Borders worker and four other civilians were killed when at least three bombs were dropped on the village of Nimne. On the same day, government planes bombed another town, Akuem, in the southern state of Bar al-Ghazal, just after a WFP food drop. Two children were killed in that bombing and more than a dozen people were wounded, according to relief workers.
Although the Sudanese government expressed its "profound regrets" after the second attack,the United States charged that the Nimne attack "indicates that the pattern of deliberately targeting civilians and humanitarian operations continues."
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Wednesday's attack in Bieh, combined with the previous attacks, "raise serious questions about the Sudanese Government's commitment to peace and the lives of its people," said Boucher, announcing the halt to talks. "We have asked for an explanation of how one part of the government can negotiate with the United States an agreement to end attacks against civilians, while another part of the government is deliberately targeting civilians."
WFP's Executive Director Catherine Bertini said: "Such attacks, deliberately targeting civilians about to receive humanitarian assistance, are absolutely and utterly unacceptable... This attack - the second of this kind in less than two weeks - is an intolerable affront to human life and to humanitarian work."
Reached by telephone, Thursday, Sudan's chief envoy to the United States, Ambassador Khidir Haroun Ahmed, denied that his government was deliberately targeting civilians. But he described conflict between rebels and the government in Upper Nile province as "very intense". Rebels are using the civilian infrastructure, according to Ambassador Khidir, "and sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish" combatants from non-combatants.
The ambassador declined to speculate on how guerillas might be confused with unarmed civilians waiting in line for food but suggested that "it might not be clear to the pilot exactly what he is hitting."
Ambassador Khidir said his government would definitely investigate the incident: "It will be full and complete. We are working on that now, around the clock."
