Dozens of civilians have been killed in drone strikes across southern Sudan over the past two days, medical sources told AFP, as some of the heaviest fighting of the nearly three-year war grips the region.
Sudan has been riven by conflict since April 2023, when a power struggle between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) plunged the country into a war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.
In the White Nile state, which lies just east of the Southern Kordofan region — an area now hit almost daily by drone attacks — a strike on a village killed 17 civilians on Wednesday, a medical source at the local hospital told AFP.
Among the dead was a health worker stationed at the village clinic near the city of Ed Dueim, the source added, speaking anonymously for security reasons.
At least nine others were wounded and are being treated in hospital, the source said.
In West Kordofan state, at least 40 people died on Tuesday when a pick-up truck carrying mourners to a funeral was hit on the road between the towns of Abu Zabad and El-Fula, a medical source at Abu Zabad Hospital said.
“Most of the victims were women,” the source told AFP, requesting anonymity for safety reasons.
A group of relatives had been “on their way to El-Fula for a funeral, which is why several members of the same family died”, resident Hamad Abdallah said, adding they had all been “buried in the same place”.
Abdallah had on Sunday helped bury 20 people, including four relatives, after another drone strike blamed on the army hit the local market.
Neither Abdallah nor the medical source were able to say who launched the latest strike, which came just hours after another that killed seven people, including three children, in the South Kordofan city of Dilling.
Deadly Drones
The Kordofan region, home to oil deposits, arable land and the RSF’s most powerful paramilitary allies, connects RSF strongholds in the Darfur region to the country’s army-controlled east.
The RSF controls West Kordofan and has for months pushed eastwards in an attempt to recapture Sudan’s central corridor.
The army has pushed back, breaking paramilitary sieges on two key cities and attempting to cut off the RSF’s supply link with Darfur.
In their battle for territory, both sides have relied on advanced drone warfare, drawing frequent condemnation from the United Nations and suggesting healthy supply routes from their foreign backers.
The UAE denies evidence it arms the RSF, while the army has been backed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia and has historically used both Turkish and Iranian drones.
An army drone strike on Sunday on the South Darfur state capital Nyala killed 11 people and wounded 20, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
The local RSF-allied administration said the army attack had struck a market in the city, where the paramilitary has declared a parallel government.
MSF said “drone strikes are being carried out in all areas of Sudan, by all warring parties, with civilians being killed and injured”.
Since the war broke out, both sides have been accused of war crimes, including targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.
