Drone Attack Kills 24, Including 8 Children, After Paramilitary Strike on Displaced Families in Central Sudan

Drone Attack Kills 24, Including 8 Children, After Paramilitary Strike on Displaced Families in Central Sudan

At least 24 people, including eight children and two infants, were killed on Saturday when a drone attack hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan, according to a doctors’ group. The attack came a day after a World Food Program (WFP) aid convoy was targeted in the same broader region.

The Sudan Doctors Network said the attack was carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group locked in a brutal conflict with the Sudanese military. The strike occurred near the city of Rahad in North Kordofan province and targeted a vehicle transporting civilians who had fled fighting in the Dubeiker area.

Several others were wounded in the attack and were taken to medical facilities in Rahad, which, like much of the Kordofan region, is facing severe shortages of medicines and basic medical supplies, the group said.

In a statement, the Sudan Doctors Network urged the international community and human rights organisations to take immediate steps to protect civilians and to hold the RSF leadership “directly accountable for these violations,” calling the incident a grave breach of international humanitarian law.

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been fighting the Sudanese army for control of the country for nearly three years.

Sudan descended into chaos in April 2023 after a power struggle between the military and the RSF erupted into open warfare in the capital Khartoum and rapidly spread to other parts of the country. The conflict has since killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.

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The drone strike on civilians followed an attack on Friday on a WFP aid convoy in North Kordofan province. U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Sudan Denise Brown said the convoy was heading to deliver “life-saving food assistance” to displaced people in the city of Obeid when it was struck, killing one person and injuring several others. The attack burned the trucks and destroyed the aid.

“Attacks on aid operations undermine efforts to reach people facing hunger and displacement,” Brown said in a statement. She also noted that a drone strike last week hit near a WFP facility in Blue Nile province, wounding a WFP worker.

Emergency Lawyers, an independent group documenting atrocities in Sudan, blamed the RSF for the attack on the aid convoy, while the Sudan Doctors Network described it as a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law” amounting to a war crime.

International condemnation followed swiftly. Massad Boulos, a U.S. adviser for African and Arab affairs, said on X that destroying food meant for people in need and killing humanitarian workers was “sickening,” adding that the Trump administration demanded accountability. British minister for international development and Africa Jenny Chapman also condemned the strike, saying civilians were starving and aid workers should never be targeted.

Kordofan has emerged as a major flashpoint in recent months, although the Sudanese army earlier this year managed to break RSF sieges of two key cities in the region.

The war has created what the United Nations describes as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. More than 14 million people have been displaced, disease outbreaks are spreading, and parts of the country have slipped into famine. While U.N. figures estimate more than 40,000 people have been killed, aid groups warn the true toll is likely far higher.

A report released this week by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said famine has now been confirmed in two additional areas of Darfur. The report warned that acute malnutrition is expected to worsen in 2026, with cases among children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding women projected to rise from 3.7 million in 2025 to nearly 4.2 million next year. Severe acute malnutrition cases are expected to reach 800,000.

Mohamad Abdiladif, Save the Children’s country director in Sudan, said children are already dying from hunger-related causes. “Every day we hear devastating stories of parents selling the last of what they own simply to keep their children alive from one day to the next,” he said.