CAIRO – A drone attack attributed to Sudan’s powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces struck a group of displaced civilians near the Ethiopian border, killing 41 people, according to a rights-monitoring organization.
The strike occurred Friday in the Abu Shandi area of Blue Nile province, said Emergency Lawyers, a group documenting abuses during Sudan’s devastating conflict.
Eight children were among those killed, along with a large number of women, the organization reported.
The RSF did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on the allegations.
The United Nations humanitarian office said it was horrified by reports of the attack, which also left dozens of people injured.
Denise Brown, the U.N.’s resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said the killings must be condemned and followed by accountability for what she described as a blatant violation of international humanitarian law. In a statement, she warned that the world was continuing to tolerate Sudan’s suffering as the war dragged on.
Sudan’s civil war began in April 2023, after a power struggle between the country’s military and the RSF erupted into fighting in Khartoum before spreading to other regions.
At least 150,000 people have died in the conflict, according to the conflict-monitoring group ACLED. Humanitarian organizations believe the actual toll could be considerably higher.
U.N. figures show that more than 12.4 million people have been driven from their homes, making Sudan the site of what aid agencies describe as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. This year, 33.7 million people — including 17.3 million children — are expected to need urgent assistance, while about 825,000 children face severe acute malnutrition.
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