Human rights groups warn of increasing drone attacks against civilians and infrastructure. A wave of drone attacks across Sudan has killed more than 160 people in recent days, according to doctors and human rights groups. Drone strikes in the capital Khartoum killed three children on Monday, according to Emergency Lawyers, a group that monitors violence against civilians in Sudan’s civil war, while more than 160 were reported to have died in western regions since Friday. The attacks were attributed to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and government troops, who have been fighting since 2023. The increasing use of drones in recent months has caused an increasing number of civilian casualties. The deadliest recent attack occurred near a market on Sunday night in the town of al-Dabba in the southwestern state of West Kordofan, controlled by the RSF. Residents and medical workers said a drone attacked a transportation center where villagers had gathered after a market day to seek transportation home, killing 80 people. Another 47 injured people were taken to the nearby town of al-Mujlad, where 30 later died from their injuries, a medical source said, according to the AFP news agency. The self-proclaimed RSF administration, known as Tasis, and Emergency Lawyers accused the army of carrying out the attack. Sudan, a military source said on Sunday that air defenses intercepted several RSF drones targeting the Atbara and Setit dams in Gadarif state, about 420 kilometers east of Khartoum. There was no immediate comment from the RSF. Earlier Monday, another drone attack hit the RSF stronghold in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. RSF and medical sources said 17 people, including seven RSF officers, were killed and 23 wounded. On Friday, an RSF drone strike hit a gathering of displaced people in Sudan’s Blue Nile province, bordering Ethiopia, killing 41 people, Emergency Lawyers said. The group condemned the attack, calling it a humanitarian tragedy. The United Nations also condemned the deadly attacks. disrupting central services,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters on Monday. Sudanese refugees arrive at the Oure Cassoni camp in Chad to escape the war in Sudan, February 24, 2026 [Dan Kitwood/Getty]At least 59,000 dead Sudan’s war began in April 2023, when military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and top RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, fell out over plans to incorporate paramilitaries into the army. In June of this year, Hemedti was sentenced to death in absentia for war crimes. However, the fighting, now in its fourth year, continues and has killed at least 59,000 people, according to the conflict monitor. ACLED. Aid groups say the real death toll is likely higher. The UN says around 13 million people have been forced to flee their homes, creating what aid groups call the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Across Sudan, 33.7 million people, including 17.3 million children, are in urgent need of food support this year. An estimated 825,000 children face severe acute malnutrition, according to the UN. The United States on Friday urged the U.N. Security Council to push for a humanitarian truce and extend an arms embargo on Sudan, but China and Russia opposed extending the embargo.
