UN demands end to looting of humanitarian warehouses in Sudan

The UN on Friday called on Sudan's warring parties to stop targeting of humanitarian assets in Sudan.

The UN aid agency, OCHA, said that it continues to receive reports that humanitarian assets and facilities in Sudan are being looted, despite the parties' commitments.

The targeting of humanitarian assets is "outrageous" and must stop now, said UN aid chief Martin Griffiths.

The warehouses of the World Food Programme (WFP) and UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) were ransacked, in El Obeid and two offices of the UN refugee agency were looted in Khartoum, OCHA said in a statement.

The conflict-hit African nation has been engulfed by violence for weeks between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary.

More than 700 people have been killed, including 190 children, and 6,000 others injured, according to the UN.

More than 1 million residents have been displaced and over 840,000 have sought shelter in rural areas and other states while another 250,000 have crossed Sudanese borders.

Disagreement had been fomenting in recent months between the two sides about integration of the RSF into the armed forces -- a key condition of Sudan's transition agreement with political groups.

Sudan has been without a functioning government since fall 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's transitional government and declared a state of emergency in a move decried by political forces as a "coup."

The transitional period, which started in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, had been scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.