Sudan: Ugandan WFP-aid driver shot in Sudan

(SomaliNet) A UN food agency said on Sunday that gunmen killed a Ugandan driver contracted to deliver aid for the World Food Programme in Sudan, in the seventh such killing in the country in three months.

According to a source, the attack took place in the south, where three other WFP drivers and one assistant had also been killed since March. Two other drivers were shot dead in the country\'s western region of Darfur in March and April.

\"Unidentified assailants shot and killed Muzamil Ramadan Sida, 28, on the Juba-Yei road on the evening of 27 June after he delivered food to a WFP warehouse in Juba,\" the capital of southern Sudan, the WFP said in a statement.

The victim\'s assistant managed to escape after steering the truck to a stop 300m away from the attack.

The gunmen chased the vehicle and stole the driver\'s belongings, the UN\'s food aid agency said.

\"Drivers of food relief trucks risk their lives to bring urgently needed food to vulnerable people. Such attacks are completely unacceptable,\" said Daniela Owen, WFP co-ordinator for southern Sudan.

Sida\'s body was repatriated to Uganda on Saturday.

In war-ravaged Darfur the WFP halved food rations in May, saying that deteriorating security, banditry, hijackings and kidnappings had made it too dangerous to make regular deliveries.

Eighty-three WFP trucks had been hijacked in Darfur so far this year. Fifty-five are still missing and 41 drivers unaccounted for. –News 24