RSF drone attack kills 24 people fleeing fighting in central Sudan, says doctors group | Sudan
A drone strike carried out by a paramilitary group hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, a doctors’ group said on Saturday.
The Rapid Support Forces attack took place near the town of Er Rahad in North Kordofan province, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, which monitors the war in the country. The group said in a statement that the vehicle was carrying displaced people fleeing clashes in the Dubeiker region. Two babies were among the dead children.
In the statement, it was stated that many people were injured and taken for treatment in Er Rahad, which, like many regions in the Kordofan region, suffers from a serious shortage of medical supplies.
The doctors’ group called on the international community and human rights organizations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly responsible for these violations.”
There has been no comment yet from RSF, which has been fighting against the Sudanese army for control of the country for nearly three years.
Sudan descended into chaos in April 2023, when a power struggle between the army and the RSF erupted into open conflict in the capital Khartoum and elsewhere in the country, killing tens of thousands and displacing millions.
UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan Denise Brown said that one person was killed and many others were injured in a drone attack on a World Food Program (WFP) aid convoy in North Kordofan state on Friday.
Brown said the convoy was on its way to distribute “life-saving food aid” to displaced people in the city of El Obeid in North Kordofan when it was hit. He said the attack burned trucks and destroyed aid.
“Attacks on aid operations undermine efforts to reach people facing hunger and displacement,” the statement said.
Brown said a WFP worker was injured in a drone strike near a WFP facility in Blue Nile state last week.
Emergency Lawyers, an independent group that documents atrocities in Sudan, blamed RSF for the attack, while the Sudan Doctors Network called it “a clear violation of international humanitarian law.” [which] It amounts to a full-fledged war crime.”
US advisor for African and Arab affairs Massad Boulos condemned the attack on X and called for those responsible to be held accountable.
“Destroying food meant for people in need and killing humanitarian workers is sickening,” he said. “The Trump administration has zero tolerance for the destruction of life and US-funded aid; we demand accountability.”
Britain’s Minister for International Development and Africa, Jenny Chapman, described the attack on the WFP convoy as “disgraceful”.
“Civilians are starving to death,” he wrote in X on Saturday. “Aid workers and humanitarian operations delivering vital food should never be targeted.”
In a strongly worded statement on Saturday, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry criticized RSF for recent drone attacks on vehicles of displaced families, a WFP convoy and a hospital in Kordofan that killed 22 people.
The Saudi statement called for the RSF to stop its attacks on civilians and aid convoys and called on foreign parties who continue to “supply illegal weapons, mercenaries and foreign fighters”; This is a clear reference to the United Arab Emirates, which has been accused by rights groups and UN experts of arming the paramilitary group. The UAE denied the accusations.
Kordofan has become a flashpoint in the war in recent months, and the army managed to break the RSF siege of two major cities in the region earlier this year.
The devastating war has killed more than 40,000 people so far, according to UN figures, but aid groups say this is an underestimate and the real number could be many times higher.
It has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with more than 14 million people forced to flee their homes. This fueled disease outbreaks and pushed parts of the country into a famine that is still spreading as the war shows no signs of abating.
In a report published on Thursday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said famine was found in two more areas in the western region of Darfur, where famine was first confirmed in a displacement camp in August 2024.
The report warned that acute malnutrition is expected to worsen in 2026, with cases of acute malnutrition in children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding women rising by 13.5%, from 3.7 million children and women in 2025 to approximately 4.2 million in 2026.
Severe acute malnutrition, the most dangerous and deadly form of malnutrition, is expected to increase by 4% to 800,000 cases by 2025.
Sudan Save the Children Country Director Mohamed Abdiladif said that in many parts of Sudan, children were already dying from hunger-related causes.
“Every day we hear devastating stories of parents selling the last of their possessions to keep their children alive from one day to the next,” he said.
