Khartoum says food drop bombing was a mistake

The Sudanese government has expressed its "profound regrets" for the aerial bombardment of a food distribution site in Bahr al-Ghazal, southern Sudan, on Saturday, which killed two children and has been strongly condemned by the United States government and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The bombing was a deplorable mistake, the result of a technical error and not a premeditated act, and the Sudanese government extended its "profound regrets", according to government and media sources. The United States was "outraged by the Government of Sudan's aerial strike against a civilian target in the south of the country," Richard Boucher, spokesman of the US Department of State, said in a statement on Tuesday. The humanitarian community in Sudan sent a 'note verbale' to the Sudanese government in Khartoum on Tuesday, protesting strongly about the incident. WFP on Wednesday "strongly condemned" the Akuem bombing, the killing of two children and injury of another 10 to 12 people. "The Sudan government would like to express its sorrow over this regrettable incident, which took place as a result of an unintended technical fault," the pro-government Akhbar al-Yawm newspaper quoted a government statement as saying, in a story picked up by Reuters news agency on Thursday. "If it has been done and it is intentional, then we will bring those who did it into court," Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il had told journalists in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Wednesday. The weekend attack is the fourth on Akuem since May 2001, the last bombardment having taken place in November 2001, when a number of people were killed, according to WFP. The agency also experienced a series of heavy bombings over three separate days in Mangayath, Bahr al-Ghazal, in October, while food relief operations were under way. The war in Sudan (in which the government reserves the right to select military targets in the south, despite repeated criticism of the bombing of civilians) is Africa's longest, most harrowing and most complex - with religion, resources, ethnicity and ideology fuelling a conflict that has claimed up to two million lives, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG). On Saturday, a Sudanese air force Antonov aircraft dropped six bombs on a WFP drop site for emergency food aid in the town of Akuem at 5 pm local time (1400 GMT), with three of the bombs landing directly on the drop zone and three falling in the surrounding area, according to diplomatic and humanitarian sources. WFP had just finished distributing 77 mt of food relief to 18,000 people suffering from drought and insecurity. The bombs killed two Sudanese children, despite the facts that WFP had received flight clearance from the Sudanese government for the food-aid drop and that its flight had originated from a government airfield, Boucher said. "This horrific and senseless attack indicates that the pattern of deliberately targeting civilians and humanitarian operations continues," he added. The government said in its statement that it "expects to take all necessary measures to prevent a repetition of such regrettable incidents", according to local and international media reports. "The bombardment of civilians contravenes state policies and is contrary to the beliefs and customs of society," Akhbar al-Yawm quoted the government statement as saying. The latest attack on Akuem comes at a time when the US is working with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and the Sudanese government on ways to end attacks on civilians - a crucial unresolved issue in Sudan, according to Washington. The US peace envoy, John Danforth, has been unable so far to reach agreement with Khartoum on ending the bombing of civilians. "The Akuem attack underlines the importance of resolving this issue as soon as possible and of setting up a viable verification mechanism to prevent this type of tragedy from being repeated in the future," Boucher said on Tuesday.