AKUEM, Sudan, FEB. 11, 2002 (Zenit.org).- A government military plane bombed this humanitarian aid center in Aweil East County, northern Bahr El Ghazal, killing a 9-year-old and injuring a toddler and five women, Christian Solidarity International reported.
Seven bombs were reportedly dropped Saturday as a crowd of civilians gathered at Akuem´s airstrip for a distribution of U.N. food, according to the Civil Commissioner of Aweil East County, Victor Akok. The U.N. World Food Program had air-dropped a consignment of grain four days earlier, Akok said.
Akok called the bombing a «deliberate and barbaric terrorist attack.»
«We urge the international community, particularly the U.S. government, to stop the Islamic dictatorship in Khartoum from waging jihad-terrorism against our innocent civilians,» he continued.
Last month, Sudanese President Omer Bashir turned down a request by U.S. special envoy John Danforth to stop bombing schools, hospitals, churches, and relief centers in black, predominantly non-Muslim southern Sudan.
According to Danforth, the Khartoum government engages in «direct, intentional and egregious attacks on civilians,» according to a United Press International report Jan. 16.
Sudan´s civil war has claimed more than 2 million civilians, the overwhelming majority of whom are black Christians and traditionalists.
Addressing the Arab Parliamentary Union on the day of the bombing at Akuem, Bashir warned non-Muslims against «accusing Islam or the Arabs of terrorism or any other [behavior] that labels them with crimes or brutality,» Agence France-Presse reported.
