Drone strike in besieged Sudan city kills dozens

Dozens of people were killed in a drone strike on a shelter for displaced people in El-Fasher, a besieged Sudanese town on the brink of collapse, activists said.

The El-Fasher Resistance Committee, made up of local citizens and activists, said the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) hit the Dar al-Arqam camp, located at a university, with two drone strikes and eight artillery shells. RSF denied having led this strike.

“Children, women and the elderly were killed in cold blood, and many were burned to the ground,” a statement from the group said.

Eyewitnesses described scenes of panic as rescuers pulled bodies from the rubble.

The Sudanese Doctors Network said 57 people were killed in the drone attack, including 17 children, and 17 were injured. Activists said at least 60 people were killed.

Hospitals, already grappling with months of siege, are overwhelmed, with doctors treating the injured on floors and in corridors.

The RSF have been surrounding El-Fasher for 17 months in an attempt to take control of the last bastion of the Sudanese army in the Darfur region.

The situation in El-Fasher “goes beyond disaster and genocide,” the resistance group said.

Sudan has been ravaged by conflict since 2023, after top commanders of the RSF and the Sudanese army fell out and a violent power struggle ensued – creating one of the worst humanitarian crises.

The army controls most of the north and east. El-Fasher is the last major urban center in Darfur still in the hands of the army and its allies. The RSF also controls almost all of Darfur and a large part of neighboring Kordofan.

If El-Fasher falls, the RSF will control the entire Darfur region, where it hopes to form an alternative government.

In recent weeks, the RSF has intensified its attacks on El-Fasher, leading experts to believe that the city could soon fall if the army does not receive immediate reinforcements.

Research showed that the RSF had finished building an earth wall around El Fasher, strengthening their siege and making it even more difficult for civilians to escape.

The UN said 250,000 civilians were trapped in El-Fasher and warned that continued strikes on civilian areas could amount to war crimes.

Hunger and disease have spread throughout the city as residents face constant bombing and dwindling food and medical supplies.

Two days ago, at least 13 people were killed after RSF bombed one of the last hospitals in El Fasher.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Friday condemned the continued killings and injuries of civilians.

“I am appalled by the RSF’s incessant and wanton disregard for civilian life,” he said.

More than 150,000 people have died in conflict across the country and around 12 million have fled their homes.