Drone strike on displaced families' vehicle kills at least 24 in Sudan

At least 24 people, including eight children and two infants, were killed when a drone struck a vehicle carrying displaced families near the city of Rahad in North Kordofan, medical monitors and humanitarian agencies said. Several others were wounded and taken to clinics in Rahad, a town already struggling with severe shortages of medical supplies.

The Sudan Doctors Network, which is tracking casualties across the conflict, reported the deaths and described the attack as a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law.” The group urged the international community to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations.” Local sources said the passengers had fled fighting in the Dubeiker area and were traveling when their vehicle was struck.

Multiple monitoring groups and UN humanitarian actors attributed the strike to the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group that has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of territory in recent years. There was no immediate comment from the RSF. The attack came amid a cluster of drone strikes and convoy attacks in Kordofan that aid agencies warn are obstructing life-saving deliveries.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported a series of dawn attacks in the region that damaged and destroyed relief vehicles. OCHA said one attack struck three trucks in the Rahad area, another damaged four vehicles including those carrying UN relief supplies near Allah Kareem and Es Samih, and a separate strike in Um Rawaba hit a transport truck and a fuel tanker. UN and aid officials also said a convoy traveling from Kosti to deliver food near el-Obeid was hit, a blow to operations aimed at reaching thousands of displaced people.

The World Food Program had not issued an immediate public statement about the convoy when initial reporting emerged. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry issued a strongly worded condemnation, singling out recent RSF strikes against civilians, aid convoys and a hospital in Kordofan that Saudi officials said killed 22 people. The Saudi statement also accused foreign parties of supplying arms and fighters to the conflict, charges regional actors have denied.

The British minister for international development and Africa, Jenny Chapman, condemned the targeting of aid, calling the attacks “disgraceful” and warning of the humanitarian stakes: “Civilians are starving. Aid workers and humanitarian operations bringing vital food should never be targeted,” she wrote on social media.

Beyond the immediate human toll, the strikes deepen a growing humanitarian and economic emergency. Attacks on convoys and relief infrastructure will raise the cost and risk of logistics, delay food distributions, and heighten the likelihood of acute food insecurity in central Sudan. Aid agencies already operating with constrained funding and limited access will face heavier burdens to reach isolated camps and clinics, while local markets and supply chains for fuel and food face further disruption.

The pattern of drone attacks in Kordofan has raised calls for accountability and increased protection for civilians, but options for enforcement are limited amid the broader RSF-Sudanese Armed Forces warfare. Humanitarian coordinators and rights groups are seeking faster access to verify casualties and restore relief corridors as displaced populations in central Sudan confront mounting shortages of food, medicine and shelter.