WFP says two top staff to be expelled from Sudan

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said Wednesday that its two top staff in Sudan had been ordered to leave the war-torn country by the foreign ministry.

The country director and emergency coordinator "have been designated as persona non grata, and asked to leave the country within 72 hours, without any explanation", the Rome-based agency said in a statement.

WFP and senior UN officials were engaging with Sudanese authorities to protest the decision, which came "at a pivotal time", it said.

"Humanitarian needs in Sudan have never been greater with more than 24 million people facing acute food insecurity and communities impacted by famine," it said.

"At a moment when WFP and its partners need to be expanding their reach, this decision forces WFP to implement unplanned leadership changes, jeopardising operations that support millions of vulnerable Sudanese facing extreme hunger, malnutrition, and even starvation," it said.

The expulsions were announced days after paramilitaries seized the key city of El-Fasher in the western region of Darfur.

The European Union on Wednesday denounced what it said was the "brutality" of RSF.

The statement came as reports emerged of mass atrocities there and the killing of five Red Crescent volunteers in Kordofan.

"Civilians being targeted based on their ethnicity underscore the brutality of the Rapid Support Force," said a statement by the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

"The Rapid Support Forces bear responsibility for protecting civilians in areas under their control, including aid workers, local responders, and journalists," said the statement, co-signed by the EU's commissioner for crisis management, Hadja Lahbib.

"Humanitarian organisations must be granted immediate, safe and unconditional access to all those in need. Civilians wishing to leave the city must be allowed to do so safely."

In the neighbouring region of North Kordofan, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent said five Sudanese Red Crescent volunteers had been killed in Bara on Monday, and that three others were missing after the RSF took control of the town on Saturday.

The RSF locked in a brutal war with the army since April 2023, had launched a final assault on the city in recent days, seizing the army's last positions.

After an 18-month siege marked by starvation and bombardment, the city is now under the control of the RSF -- descendants of the Janjaweed militias accused of genocide two decades ago.

The capture of El-Fasher has sparked fears of mass killings reminiscent of the region's darkest days.

Analysts say Sudan is now effectively partitioned along an east-west axis, with the RSF running a parallel government across Darfur while the army is entrenched along the Nile and Red Sea in the north, east and centre.