Drones sent by Sudan’s army and its rival, the Rapid Support Forces, killed dozens of people in towns across Sudan this week.
For example, a “drone strike by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed three people and wounded seven others at Al-Mazmoum Hospital in Sudan’s southeastern Sennar state late Sunday…An RSF drone targeted the hospital Sunday evening, killing three people and injuring seven, including a medical staffer.”
“Targeting health facilities constitutes a blatant violation of international laws that prohibit attacks on medical centers and health workers,” said the Sudan Doctors Network.
At least 28 people were killed when drones bombed the al-Safiya market in the town of Sodari in central Sudan. The bombing on Sunday occurred when the market was packed with people, and the number of casualties is likely to rise.
“The attack occurred when the market was bustling with civilians, including women, children and the elderly,” a human-rights group said.
The drones appear to have been sent by Sudan’s army. A news report says that the area where the drone attack occurred “is currently the fiercest front line in the three-year-old war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Sodari, a remote town where desert trade routes cross, is 132 miles northwest of el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, which the RSF has been trying to encircle for months. The Kordofan region has seen a surge in deadly drone attacks as both sides fight over” it. “After consolidating its hold on Darfur last year, the RSF has pushed east through the oil- and gold-rich Kordofan in an attempt to seize Sudan’s central corridor.”
Earlier, drones sent by the Rapid Support Forces killed hundreds of people in attacks on El-Obeid, which has around 600,000 people, and surrounding areas. In a village near El-Obeid, a drone killed 65 people at a funeral gathering.
Earlier, “a drone attack” by the RSF “hit a kindergarten in” the town of Kalogli in “south-central Sudan, killing 50 people, including 33 children,” reported the Associated Press. Then it returned to kill paramedics at the scene.
Millions of people in Sudan lost power last year due to drone strikes on a key power plant.
The Rapid Support Forces also have committed genocide against the Masalit people of western Sudan. And they slaughtered tens of thousands of the Zaghawa people after seizing the major city of El Fasher. The RSF also has kidnapped thousands of people and held them for random, torturing many of them.
