Daijiworld Media Network - Khartoum
Khartoum, Feb 8: At least 24 people, including eight children and two infants, were killed after a drone attack struck a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan, a doctors’ group said on Saturday.
According to the Sudan Doctors Network, the attack was carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) near the city of Er Rahad in North Kordofan province. The vehicle was transporting civilians who had fled clashes in the Dubeiker area. Several others were injured and rushed to medical facilities in Er Rahad, where hospitals are facing severe shortages of supplies.
The doctors’ group urged the international community and human rights organisations to take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership accountable, calling the attack a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law” and a war crime. There was no immediate response from the RSF.
The deadly strike came a day after a drone attack hit a World Food Programme (WFP) aid convoy in North Kordofan, killing one person and wounding several others, according to UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan Denise Brown. The convoy was en route to deliver life-saving food assistance to displaced people in El Obeid when it was attacked, destroying trucks and food supplies.
“Attacks on aid operations undermine efforts to reach people facing hunger and displacement,” Brown said, adding that a separate drone strike last week wounded a WFP worker near a facility in Blue Nile province.
International condemnation followed the attacks. US adviser for African and Arab affairs Massad Boulos described the destruction of humanitarian aid and killing of civilians as “sickening” and called for accountability. British minister for international development and Africa Jenny Chapman termed the attack on the aid convoy “disgraceful,” stressing that humanitarian workers must never be targeted.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry, in a strongly worded statement, criticised the RSF for drone strikes on civilians, aid convoys and a hospital in Kordofan that reportedly killed 22 people. The statement also called out foreign parties accused of supplying arms and fighters to the paramilitary group, an apparent reference to the UAE, which has denied such allegations.
Sudan has been gripped by a brutal conflict since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the military and the RSF, plunging the country into chaos. The war has killed over 40,000 people, according to UN estimates, displaced more than 14 million, and triggered what aid agencies describe as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
A recent report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warned that famine has expanded to new areas of Darfur and that acute malnutrition is expected to worsen in 2026, particularly among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women.
Save the Children Sudan country director Mohamed Abdiladif said children are already dying from hunger-related causes, with families selling their last possessions to survive from one day to the next.