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A drone attack on a market in Sudan’s North Darfur state on Sunday killed 10 people over the weekend, first responders said, without identifying who was responsible.
The strike came as fighting intensified elsewhere in the country, prompting aid workers to evacuate from Kadugli, a besieged, famine-hit city in the south, according to a source who spoke to AFP.
Since April 2023, Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 million and created the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis.
The North Darfur Emergency Rooms Council, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan, said a drone strike hit Al-Harra market in the RSF-controlled town of Malha on Saturday.
The council did not identify who carried out the attack, which it said had sparked "fire in shops and caused extensive material damage."
There was no immediate comment from either the Sudanese army or the RSF.
South Kordofan state has seen ongoing fighting between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for the past few days, with RSF forces, backed by the SPLM-North, laying siege to the towns of Kadugli and Dilling, the state’s two largest cities.
The war's current epicenter is South Kordofan, and clashes have escalated in Kadugli, the state capital, where a drone attack last week killed eight people as they attempted to flee the army-controlled city.
A source from a humanitarian organization operating in Kadugli told AFP on Sunday that humanitarian groups had "evacuated all their workers" from the city due to security conditions.
The evacuation followed the United Nations' decision to relocate its logistics hub from Kadugli, the source said on condition of anonymity, without specifying where the staff had gone.
Kadugli and nearby Dilling have been besieged by paramilitary forces since the war erupted.
Meanwhile, Sudan’s minister of cabinet affairs, Lamia Abdel Ghafar, said the country is seeking a peace that preserves its sovereignty, unity and independence, without foreign interference.
She also called for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to be designated a “terrorist organization” following what she described as ongoing violations committed against civilians.
Last week, the RSF claimed control of the Brno area, a key defensive line on the road connecting Kadugli to Dilling.
After dislodging the army in October from the western city of El-Fasher, its last stronghold in the Darfur region, the RSF has shifted its focus to resource-rich Kordofan, a strategic crossroads linking army-held northern and eastern territories with RSF-held Darfur in the west.
Communications in the area have been cut, and the United Nations declared a famine in Kadugli last month.
Residents have been forced to forage for food in nearby forests, according to accounts gathered by AFP.
The conflict has effectively split Sudan in two: The army controls the north, east and center, while the RSF dominates all five state capitals in Darfur and, with its allies, parts of the south.
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