A drone attack by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces struck a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan on Saturday, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, doctors said.
The Sudan Doctors Network said the attack took place near the town of Rahad in North Kordofan province. The vehicle was transporting civilians who had fled fighting in the Dubeiker area. Among the dead were two infants, the group said.
Several others were injured and rushed to medical facilities in Rahad, where hospitals are facing acute shortages of medicine and equipment, similar to much of the wider Kordofan region.
The doctors’ group urged the international community and human rights organisations to take immediate steps to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership accountable for what it described as grave violations.
There was no immediate response from the RSF, which has been fighting the Sudanese military for nearly three years for control of the country.
The attack came a day after an aid convoy of the World Food Programme was targeted in North Kordofan. The strike killed one person and wounded several others, said Denise Brown, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan.
Brown said the convoy was on its way to deliver life-saving food assistance to displaced people in the city of Obeid when it was hit. The trucks were burned and the food aid destroyed.
“Attacks on humanitarian operations undermine efforts to reach people suffering from hunger and displacement,” Brown said in a statement.
She added that last week another drone strike landed near a WFP facility in Blue Nile province, injuring a WFP staff member.
The Emergency Lawyers group, which documents abuses in Sudan, blamed the RSF for the aid convoy attack. The Sudan Doctors Network described it as a serious breach of international humanitarian law and a possible war crime.
US adviser for African and Arab affairs Massad Boulos condemned the attack, saying the destruction of food aid and killing of humanitarian workers was unacceptable and called for accountability.
Kordofan has emerged as a key battleground in recent months. Earlier this year, the Sudanese army managed to break RSF sieges on two major cities in the region.
Sudan has been in turmoil since April 2023, when tensions between the military and the RSF erupted into open war. According to UN estimates, more than 40,000 people have been killed, though aid groups say the true toll is far higher.
The conflict has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, forcing more than 14 million people from their homes, spreading disease and pushing parts of the country into famine as fighting continues unabated.