Officials working for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in Sudan announced on 27 October that nine locally employed aid workers had been killed in the western Darfur region in mid October by local warring tribes. The nine men had been travelling to temporary camps, which house some of the many thousands of refugees displaced by the war in southern Sudan, when their convoy was attacked by local militiamen. The aid workers were all killed and their cargo looted, said USAID head Andrew Natsios. He urged Khartoum to guarantee the safety of USAID workers in the country.