Khartoum (Sudan): The Sudanese army shot at a United Nations convoy in war-torn Darfur, severely wounding a driver, in the first attack against the peacekeepers since their mission began this month, the United Nations said today. The UN issued a sharply worded condemnation of the attack, saying it had protested to the Sudanese government. The statement said the convoy was "clearly marked" as belonging to the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force, known as UNAMID.

"The secretary-general condemns this attack in the strongest possible terms and stresses that...the government of Sudan has to provide unequivocal guarantees that there will be no recurrence of such activities by its forces," the UN statement said. There was no immediate comment by the Sudanese government. A fuel tanker truck was destroyed and an armored personnel carrier damaged in the attack late yesterday on a supply convoy, protected by South African peacekeepers, near Sudan s volatile border with Chad, a UNAMID statement said.

A Sudanese contracting driver received seven bullet wounds and was in critical condition, but the peacekeepers did not return fire and there were no UN casualties, the statement said. A UN peacekeeper stationed near the site of the attack said a Sudanese army unit apparently mistook the peacekeepers for Darfur rebels who also operate in the area. "It was night time, it seems the (Sudanese) soldiers lost their calm," the peacekeeper said.

Source : PTI