A drone strike blamed on Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces killed 41 people at a displaced gathering in Blue Nile province near the Ethiopia border, according to Emergency Lawyers.
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A rights group says a drone strike blamed on Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces hit a gathering of displaced people near the border with Ethiopia and killed 41 in Sudan’s Blue Nile province.
Emergency Lawyers, which tracks the conflict in northeastern Africa, said Friday’s strike took place in the Abu Shandi area and that among the dead were eight children and many women.
The group said the attack also wounded dozens, and the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs called it appalling in a statement.
Denise Brown, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said condemning the killings is important, adding there must also be accountability for what she described as a “flagrant disregard for international humanitarian law.”
The statement said Sudan’s war began in April 2023 when fighting between the military and the RSF erupted into open conflict in Khartoum and spread across the country.
According to conflict monitor ACLED, the war has killed at least 150,000 people, and U.N. figures say more than 12.4 million people have fled their homes.
The same U.N. figures cited by the report say 33.7 million people, including 17.3 million children, urgently need aid this year, and an estimated 825,000 children face severe acute malnutrition.
A spokesperson for the RSF did not respond to a request for comment.
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