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Sudan Government Expresses Regret Over Bombing VOA News 14 Feb 2002 13:24 UTC 
The Sudanese government has expressed deep regret over a bombing raid that killed two children Sunday in a southern village.
In a statement released Thursday, the government said the bombing was unintentional and pledged to take measures to ensure such an incident does not happen again. The statement did not explain the nature of the error that led to the bombing.
On Sunday, a Sudanese aircraft dropped six bombs on a World Food Program emergency drop site in the southern state of Bahr al-Ghazal - only three hours after relief planes had dropped supplies there. In addition to killing the two children, the bombing also wounded several people who had gone to the site to collect food.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher strongly condemned the attack, saying it violated the Khartoum government's pledge last month to U.S. special envoy John Danforth to end the bombing of civilian targets for four weeks.
Last month, with U.S. and Swiss diplomatic help, the Sudanese government and southern rebels signed a renewable six-month cease-fire accord, covering a stronghold in the Nuba mountains region of central Sudan. The World Food Program has said it intends to protest the attack.
Sudan's civil war, which began in 1983, pits the mainly Christian and animist south against the Muslim-dominated government in the north. The conflict and famine have claimed the lives of nearly two million people.
Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.
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