The attack happened as the workers were returning from the town of Kurmuk after distributing ‘humanitarian aid.’

Three members of the Sudanese Red Cross were killed Sunday in an attack in the war-torn Blue Nile area, where Khartoum is currently battling rebels, officials said.

Ahmad Mohammed Adam, a senior official of the Humanitarian Affairs Commission, condemned the attack, which he said “led to the death of three humanitarian workers from the Sudanese Red Cross Association in Blue Nile state.”

The attack happened as the Red Cross workers were returning from the town of Kurmuk after distributing “humanitarian aid to the needy in the area,” he said in a statement obtained by AFP.

The statement gave no details about the attack, and a spokesman for the HAC said that it had nothing to add.

The Sudanese military could not be reached for comment and the rebels from the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement-North who operate in the region said they did not have any information on the incident.

“I call on the armed movements to respect international humanitarian law and the principle of protecting emergency and aid distribution workers,” said Adam.

The town of Kurmuk lies on Sudan’s southeastern border with Ethiopia in the Blue Nile State.

The Sudanese government has limited the activities of international relief organizations in areas controlled by the SPLM-N in Blue Nile and the neighboring South Kordofan area since the beginning of an insurgency in 2011.

The SPLM-N rebelled against Khartoum in 2011, complaining that they were being marginalized and neglected by the Arab-based regime.

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