Relief aircraft bombed in the Nuba Mountains

A plane carrying relief for the Nuba Mountains was bombed on 16 April at Kawdah (11.06N 30.31E) airstrip. A press release by the Italian NGO Koinonia Community said government planes dropped a total of about 14 bombs in three attacks, killing one person and injuring two. The first attack took place when hundreds of civilians had gathered at the airstrip around a relief plane on the ground.

The arrival of a second plane carrying relief masked the noise of the approaching bomber, the press release said. The pilot of the approaching relief plane aborted the landing, and escaped unharmed, as did the plane on the ground, which took off immediately with its passengers. Kawdah airstrip is in an area controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). The airstrip was described by the NGO as a vital link for civilians and the SPLA.
“For a long time, relief organisations, human rights groups and churches have been pushing to gain access to the Nuba Mountains to deliver food and other relief supplies,” the NGO said in the press release. The Sudan government has denied that government air force bombers attacked the Kawdah airstrip.