More than 100 people have been killed in a wave of drone strikes targeting Sudan’s army-held capital, Khartoum, and two areas controlled by paramilitary forces since Sunday, according to residents, medical workers and paramilitary sources.
The deadliest attack occurred on Sunday evening near a market in Al-Dibab, a town in southwestern West Kordofan State controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been fighting Sudan’s military since April 2023.
Residents and medical workers said a drone struck a transport hub where villagers had gathered to find rides home after market day, killing 80 people.
Ahmed Abakar Wadi, a resident who helped bury the victims, told AFP that at least 50 bodies were recovered at the scene, including that of his brother.
A medical source said 47 wounded people were taken to nearby Al-Mujlad, where 30 later died from their injuries.
“The drone struck once, and then came back 10 minutes later and struck again,” Wadi told AFP.
The RSF’s self-declared administration, known as Tasis, and Sudanese rights group Emergency Lawyers accused the Sudanese military of carrying out the attack. The military had not commented on the allegations.
The strike was among the deadliest single attacks in Kordofan, an oil-rich region linking western and eastern Sudan, where government forces and the RSF have been battling for territorial control.
Hours later, early on Monday, another drone attack hit Nyala, the capital of South Darfur and a major RSF stronghold.
Medical and RSF sources said 17 people, including seven RSF officers, were killed and 23 others wounded when a drone struck the city centre and destroyed two homes.
Violence also reached Khartoum on Monday morning, when a drone struck a house in a neighbourhood east of the airport, killing four people, including three children aged between two and six, according to a medical source.
An army official said Sudanese air defences had intercepted RSF drones targeting the airport and surrounding areas.
In eastern Sudan, a military source said air defences intercepted several RSF drones on Sunday targeting the Atbara and Setit dams in Gadaref State, about 420 kilometres east of Khartoum.
The conflict has triggered a severe humanitarian crisis, with aid workers estimating that more than 200,000 people have been killed and millions displaced. Aid agencies describe Sudan’s displacement and hunger emergency as the world’s largest of its kind.
The United Nations said more than 1,100 people were killed in drone attacks across Sudan during the first half of this year alone.
Kordofan has experienced repeated drone attacks in recent months as the military seeks to reverse RSF territorial gains made last year, following the paramilitary group’s consolidation of control over much of Darfur. The region is also home to oil deposits and some of the RSF’s strongest allied forces.
On Friday, a drone strike on a cattle market in Nyala, Sudan’s second-largest city and the seat of the RSF’s self-declared administration, killed 30 people and injured 47 others, according to a medical source.
