Strike on UN aid trucks in Sudan kills one: WFP

A strike on two United Nations food aid trucks in Sudan's South Kordofan state killed one of their drivers, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Sunday, without specifying who was behind the attack.

The attack comes as fighting intensifies in Kordofan, a strategically important region where Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are battling for territory more than three years into a war that has devastated much of the country.

The WFP trucks were travelling between the two army-controlled cities of Dilling and Kadugli on Saturday when they came under attack, despite being "clearly marked as humanitarian vehicles", WFP said.

The agency said it was assessing the damage and called for a prompt investigation into the incident.

It added that just the day before, a WFP truck had struck an explosive device in Dilling after delivering lifesaving food assistance.

The WFP did specify the munition used in the latest attack, but both the army and the RSF have increasingly deployed drones in recent months, with the high-tech weapons killing more than 1,100 people in the first half of the year alone, according to UN figures.

The war between Sudan's army and the RSF has killed more than 200,000 people, aid workers estimate, displaced more than 11 million and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

Famine was confirmed last year in South Kordofan's Kadugli, and in El-Fasher in the western Darfur region, as fighting and access restrictions continue to hamper aid deliveries.