Drone strikes across Sudan leave more than 160 dead
A surge of drone attacks has swept through Sudan, killing over 160 people in recent days, according to medical personnel and human‑rights monitors. In Khartoum, three children were killed on Monday by a drone strike, a figure reported by Emergency Lawyers, an organization that tracks civilian harm in the civil war. The same group says that more than 160 deaths have been recorded in the western parts of the country since Friday.
Both the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and government troops, who have been locked in conflict since 2023, are being blamed for the attacks. The growing reliance on unmanned aircraft in recent months has led to a sharp rise in civilian casualties.
The deadliest incident occurred on Sunday evening near a market in al‑Dabba, a town in the southwestern state of West Kordofan under RSF control. Residents and health workers said a drone struck a transport hub where villagers were waiting for rides home after market day, killing 80 people. Forty‑seven injured individuals were taken to the nearby town of al‑Mujlad, where 30 later died, according to a medical source cited by AFP. The RSF’s self‑declared administration, known as Tasis, and Emergency Lawyers have accused the Sudanese army of carrying out the strike.
In eastern Sudan, a military source said air‑defence units intercepted several RSF drones that were targeting the Atbara and Setit dams in Gadarif state, roughly 420 km east of Khartoum. The RSF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Early on Monday another drone hit Nyala, the capital of South Darfur and an RSF stronghold. Medical officials and RSF sources reported 17 deaths, including seven RSF officers, and 23 injuries.
A separate RSF‑linked drone attack on Friday struck a gathering of displaced people in the Blue Nile province along the Ethiopian border, killing 41, Emergency Lawyers said. The group condemned the strike as a humanitarian tragedy.
The United Nations also voiced alarm. “We are alarmed by the continued deadly drone strikes across the country that are killing civilians, including children, and that are disrupting central services,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary‑General Antonio Guterres, told reporters on Monday.
The conflict, which began in April 2023 after a split between military leader Abdel Fattah al‑Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, over plans to merge the paramilitary into the army, has now entered its fourth year. In June, Hemedti was sentenced to death in absentia for war crimes. Conflict monitor ACLED estimates at least 59,000 deaths, though aid agencies believe the true toll is higher.
The United Nations reports that about 13 million people have been forced from their homes, creating what aid groups describe as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. This year, 33.7 million Sudanese, including 17.3 million children, require urgent food assistance, and an estimated 825 000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
On Friday, the United States urged the UN Security Council to pursue a humanitarian truce and to broaden an arms embargo on Sudan. China and Russia opposed any expansion of the embargo.