Sudanupdated 1h ago2 min read
Rapid Support Forces Drone Attack Kills 11 People Near Hajar Sunakit In Darfur
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11 people killed in a drone attack by the RSF at Hajar Sunakit West Darfur drone strike killed civilians, including six women, with several injured
5 outlets told this the same way.
Outlets did split on Sudan’s Army Kills Dozens of RSF Fighters in Nyala Air Attacks →
Darfur drone attack
Darfur authorities announced the killing of 11 people in a drone attack by the Rapid Support Forces in the area of Hajar Sunakit in the western part of the region on Saturday. Darfur’s Health Minister told Al Jazeera that the bombing targeted a camp housing displaced people, and Osama Sayed Ahmed quoted Minister Babakr Hamdin calling it a "horrific crime" and a "violation of international humanitarian law". Drone attacks killed civilians in West Darfur and West Kordofan on Saturday, including six women killed in Bir Saliba in Sarba locality.
A drone strike killed at least 10 civilians in Sudan’s West Darfur state on Saturday, with Babiker Hamdein reporting at least 10 deaths and five injuries. The attack occurred on October 17 in Sanaqit, near Bir Siliba in Sirba locality, close to the border with Chad, and it described the victims as internally displaced people who had sought refuge near the Sudanese-Chadian border.
Competing casualty counts
Babiker Hamdein blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for the strike in Sanaqit, and he said the victims were internally displaced people who had sought refuge near the Sudanese-Chadian border. The Mararit tribal leadership said the victims were harvesting crops when the drone struck, and it said the displaced families had lost their homes and property about two years earlier. Major Mutawakkil Ali Wakil, spokesman for the Joint Force, condemned the strike and said, "Targeting innocent civilians constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and a crime that cannot be justified under any circumstances,".
UN News said the Security Council meets on Sudan as drones and hunger take a deadly toll, and it stated that "20 million people face acute hunger". UN News also said "Famine risk rising in parts of Darfur and Greater Kordofan" as the war spreads from El Obeid to Blue Nile.
Wider battlefield and aid
The Joint Force, allied with the Sudanese Armed Forces, took control of Bir Saliba in early October while fighting continued in surrounding areas. An SAF drone strike on a civilian lorry near Ankush in West Kordofan killed four civilians, including three women, and it described the vehicle as having travelled from Abu Zabad locality towards El Mazroub in North Kordofan. The Rapid Support Forces carried out several offensive drone attacks, assessed as more than seven drones, on sites in Gedarif State, targeting the headquarters of the Second Infantry Division of the Sudanese Army.
The attacks also targeted the Sitiat Dam in the same state, and ground defenses shot down a number of drones. Ambassadors are expected to press yet again for a ceasefire, safe aid access and an end to the weapons flows fuelling the brutal conflict, as the Security Council meets on Sudan.