Two trucks carrying United Nations food aid were destroyed in an aerial attack outside Dilling in Sudan’s South Kordofan state over the weekend, the World Food Programme said on Wednesday, in another blow to relief efforts in a war that has pushed millions toward hunger.
The agency said the vehicles were carrying 50 metric tonnes of food for people in need and were bound for Kadugli, the state capital. It did not identify who carried out the attack.
The incident took place on Sunday, according to the WFP. The agency said the food cargo was intended for thousands of people in a region where access for aid convoys has become increasingly dangerous and unpredictable.
Dilling and Kadugli sit in a conflict zone where front lines, drone activity and shelling have made transport routes especially exposed. The WFP’s account did not say whether anyone was injured, but it made clear that the food supplies themselves were lost. For an operation already stretched by insecurity and blocked roads, the destruction of 50 metric tonnes of aid is a significant setback.
Sudan’s war, which began in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, has created what aid groups describe as the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis. AFP reported via Arab News that the conflict has killed more than 200,000 people by aid-group estimates and that drone strikes by both sides have intensified in recent months. The United Nations has said those strikes have killed more than 1,000 civilians.
The WFP said it is supporting nearly 58,000 people in Kadugli who are already facing emergency levels of hunger. That makes the loss of a convoy especially serious, because even limited deliveries can be decisive in places where food stocks are thin and market access is unreliable.
The attack also fits a wider pattern of danger for humanitarian operations across Sudan. AFP via Arab News said Sudan was the deadliest place to operate for aid workers after Gaza last year, with 71 humanitarian personnel killed, according to the United Nations. The same report said about 30 million people in Sudan need humanitarian assistance.
The WFP statement did not assign blame for the attack, and the report available in the packet does not offer an independent account of the strike. Even so, the destruction of aid trucks carrying food for civilians adds to pressure on relief agencies trying to reach isolated communities while the conflict continues to intensify.
For residents in and around South Kordofan, the loss is more than a logistical setback. It means another delay in food reaching a population already described by the WFP as in emergency conditions. In a war where humanitarian access is increasingly fragile, the destruction of two aid trucks can ripple far beyond the immediate blast site, leaving people in Kadugli and nearby areas with one less line of support.
The WFP did not say when replacement supplies might be sent, and no party has publicly taken responsibility in the evidence provided. What is clear from the agency’s account is that a convoy carrying food for civilians was struck, the cargo was destroyed, and the path to getting assistance into South Kordofan has become even harder.
