CHELKOU, SUDAN, JUL 17 (ZENIT.org)

    Local aid workers state that a Sudanese military airplane bombed a field clinic and passenger airplane belonging to the International Red Cross in Chelkou, Sudan, on Saturday, July 15. In six waves and over 20 minutes, the plane dropped a total of 15 bombs. Two patients were injured, The Red Cross plane has been repaired and returned to Kenya.

    This bombing comes as part of a three-week bombing campaign by the Sudanese government. Within the past twelve months, the Khartoum regime has also bombed and severely damaged a field hospital run by Franklin Graham's Samaritans Purse organization and a Catholic school run by Bishop Malcolm Macram Gassis. The latest bombings violate the current UN-brokered "humanitarian cease fire" in northern Bahr El Ghazal.

    On July 16, according to Reuters, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry implicitly threatened to re-impose bans on humanitarian aid flights -- thus creating grave famine conditions in Bahr El Ghazal, as occurred in 1998 -- unless the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army ceases military operations in the area.

    Christian Solidarity International has urged U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to insist upon an immediate cessation of the government's current deliberate bombing campaign of civilian targets, including humanitarian aid facilities and medical clinics. ZE00071720

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