A drone strike hit a United Nations facility in Sudan on Saturday, killing six peacekeepers, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
The strike hit the peacekeeping logistics base in the city of Kadugli, in the central region of Kordofan, Guterres said in a statement.
"Attacks as the one today in South Kordofan against peacekeepers are unjustifiable. There will need to be accountability," he said in a statement.
Eight other peacekeepers were wounded in the strike. All the victims are Bangladeshi nationals, serving in the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei, UNISFA.
“Attacks targeting United Nations peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law,” said Guterres.
The Sudanese military blamed the attack on the Rapid Support Forces, RSF.
The attack “clearly reveals the subversive approach of the rebel militia and those behind it,” the military said in a statement.
The military posted a video on social media showing plumes of dense black smoke over what it said was the UN facility.
In a statement, the Sovereignty Council headed by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan called the attack a "dangerous escalation.”
The RSF in a statement on Telegram said it rejected "the claims and allegations... regarding an air attack that targeted the United Nations headquarters in Kadugli, and the accompanying false accusations against our forces of being behind it through the use of a drone.”
Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus in a statement said he was "deeply saddened" by the attack.
He asked the UN to ensure that his country's personnel were offered "any necessary emergency support.”
"The government of Bangladesh will stand by the families in this difficult moment," Yunus added.
Dhaka's foreign ministry said it "strongly condemned" the attack.
Abyei is a disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan, and the UN mission has been deployed there since 2011 when South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan.
Guterres also called for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan to allow “a comprehensive, inclusive and Sudanese-owned political process” to settle the conflict in the country.
Sudan was plunged into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country. The conflict has killed over 40,000 people — a figure rights groups consider a significant undercount.
The fighting has recently centered on Kodrofan, particularly since the RSF took control of el-Fasher, the military’s last stronghold in the western region of Darfur.
