Drone strikes on central Sudanese city kill up to 23, NGO says
Drone attacks hit residential areas, a funeral gathering, and a food truck, killing up to 23 people in el-Obeid, according to officials and a rights group.
Drone strikes on the central Sudanese city of el-Obeid have killed up to 23 people, officials and a rights group reported on Thursday. The local rights group Emergency Lawyers said on social media that 23 people were killed and 19 others wounded. Health officials at el-Obeid Hospital reported 15 dead and more than 10 wounded. The attacks struck residential areas, a funeral gathering, a truck carrying food supplies, as well as areas near army positions.
Emergency Lawyers blamed the attack on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which did not immediately claim responsibility. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the claim. The incident comes less than a week after a drone strike targeted the main market in Abu Zaeima, a paramilitary-controlled town in North Kordofan state, killing at least 11 people and injuring dozens. Neither side has claimed responsibility.
The United Nations said in May that at least 880 civilians had been killed in drone strikes nationwide between January and April. Fighting has intensified in recent months in the Kordofan region and Blue Nile state near the Ethiopian border, particularly after the RSF captured el-Fasher last October, the army’s last major stronghold in western Darfur.
Kordofan remains a key battleground, linking RSF strongholds in Darfur to army-controlled areas in eastern Sudan, and continues to be fiercely contested. El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, has been partially encircled for months by paramilitary forces. Now entering its fourth year, the war has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 13 million people, creating what the UN describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.
