Sudan20 October, 20263 min read
Rapid Support Forces Drone Attacks Disrupt Flights At Khartoum Airport, Killing Children
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RSF drone attacks disrupted flights at Khartoum airport and raised passenger safety concerns. Three children were killed in a Khartoum strike attributed to the RSF.
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Khartoum airport hit
Repeated drone attacks near Khartoum’s airport have disrupted flights and raised passenger-safety concerns, with Radio Dabanga describing five successive waves of drone attacks attributed to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) striking areas around the capital’s international airport. Radio Dabanga said the attacks targeted seven locations across the city and killed a man and four children, while air defences reportedly intercepted threats directed at the airport and a drone fell in an unoccupied area east of the runway with no casualties reported at the site. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) in Sudan said some flights had been disrupted by the attacks, and passengers reported arriving at Khartoum airport only to discover that their flights had been cancelled without prior notification.
A senior airport official insisted flights were continuing according to airlines’ published schedules, saying the situation was stable, services were operating normally, and air traffic had not been affected by the bombardment. Amjad Farid, an adviser to the head of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council, said in a post on X that Khartoum airport was continuing to operate normally under established procedures and accused unnamed parties of spreading rumours that the airport had closed.
Calls for suspension
The Sudanese Centre for Civil Aviation Research and Studies recommended temporarily suspending commercial operations at Khartoum airport in response to the deteriorating security situation and mounting risks. The centre said its October 2026 professional assessment urged that any decision on operations should be based on a formal safety risk assessment and an independent, evidence-based evaluation of safety standards, rather than economic considerations or political pressure. The centre warned that a single accident in an active conflict zone could have consequences extending beyond loss of life and property, including a loss of confidence among international airlines and higher insurance premiums.
UNICEF condemned the reported killing of at least 12 children in separate attacks in Sudan’s West Kordofan and Khartoum states, warning that neither displacement camps nor residential neighbourhoods are safe. Angela Kearney, UNICEF’s acting representative in Sudan, said, “In West Kordofan, children were killed in a camp their families had fled to for safety.”
Children killed in strikes
UNICEF said nine children aged between five and 10 were reportedly killed on Saturday 17 October in an attack on a camp for displaced families east of Sanakit in West Kordofan. UNICEF also said that two days later an armed drone struck a residential area in Khartoum, reportedly killing three children, two girls and a boy aged between two and six, along with their father. Noovo Info reported that a rare drone attack on the Sudanese capital killed three children on Monday, attributing the strike to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and placing the incident in Imtidad Nasser, a neighborhood east of Khartoum airport.
Sayed Mustafa, a resident of the neighborhood, told the Associated Press that he saw a drone heading toward the airport and heard anti-aircraft fire reaching it, and he said, “Shortly after, the drone crashed and we heard an explosion near the airport,”. UNICEF said children continued to face deadly violence after more than three years of conflict, with displacement camps and residential areas alike failing to provide reliable protection.