6 Bangladeshi peacekeepers killed, 8 injured in Sudan UN base attack: ISPR

Six members of the Bangladesh Army serving with the United Nations peacekeeping mission were killed and eight others injured when "terrorists attacked" a UN base in Sudan's Abyei region today (13 December), according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

Fighting in the area is still ongoing, the ISPR said in a statement, without providing any further details.

According to a statement posted on Bangladesh Army's Facebook page, the authorities are continuing all‑out efforts to provide necessary treatment and carry out rescue operations for the injured peacekeepers.

Further details on the situation will be shared in due course once available, said Bangladesh Army.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei said "six troops were killed and six injured", including four seriously, when a drone hit their camp in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state, reports AFP.

All the victims are from Bangladesh, it said.

A medical source had earlier told AFP that the strike on a United Nations facility in Kadugli killed at least six people, with witnesses saying they were UN employees.

"Six people were killed in a bombing of the UN headquarters while they were inside the building," the medical source at the city's hospital said.

Eyewitnesses said a drone had struck the UN facility.

The army-aligned government based in Port Sudan issued a statement condemning the attack and accusing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of being behind it.

In a statement, the Sovereignty Council headed by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan called the attack a "dangerous escalation".

Kadugli, where famine was declared in early November, has been besieged for a year and a half by the RSF.

Following their late-October capture of El-Fasher the army's last stronghold in Sudan's western Darfur region the RSF have pushed eastward into the oil-rich Kordofan region, divided into three states.

Kordofan is a vast agricultural region that lies between RSF-controlled Darfur in the west and army-held areas in the north, east and centre.

Its position is important for maintaining supply lines and moving troops.

The RSF has been at war with the military since April 2023 and has deployed fighters, drones and allied militias to the fertile region.

Analysts say the RSF seek to punch through the army's defences around central Sudan, paving the way for recapturing Khartoum.

Last week, strikes on a kindergarten and hospital in Kalogi in South Kordofan killed 114 people, including 63 children, according to the UN's World Health Organization.

Sudan's war has so far killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and resulted in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Efforts to end the war have so far failed.

Last month, US President Donald Trump said he would move to end the conflict following discussions in Washington with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but the initiative has yet to materialise.