Sudan drone strike kills 11 at displacement camp – official
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have killed at least 11 people, including nine children, in a drone attack on a displacement camp in West Darfur, according to the region’s Health and Social Welfare Minister, Babiker Hamdin.
In a statement published on Sunday, Hamdin said that the attack targeted displaced civilians on the Sudan-Chad border. According to preliminary figures, the victims included nine children aged between five and ten and two women aged 23 and 36. Five others were injured.
The victims had reportedly fled their villages last year after RSF fighters allegedly burned and looted their homes. They subsequently sought refuge in Sanakit, near the Chadian border, where they were living in difficult humanitarian conditions before the latest attack.
Hamdin condemned the strike as “a horrific crime and a grave violation of international humanitarian law, reflecting the militia’s indifference to the lives of innocent people.”
He called on the international community to hold those responsible accountable and designate the paramilitary group as a terrorist organization.
Sudan was plunged into a civil war three years ago after a struggle for power broke out between the SAF and the RSF.
Sudan descended into chaos in April 2023 when fighting erupted between the national army, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The conflict followed months of tension between their commanders, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, over a planned transition to civilian rule. What began in the capital, Khartoum, as a power struggle has devastated the country, killing tens of thousands, displacing millions, and pushing parts of Sudan into famine.
Regional and international peace efforts, including African Union mediation and Saudi-US talks in Jeddah, have repeatedly stalled. In September 2025, the Quad group – the US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates – proposed a three-month humanitarian truce leading to a permanent ceasefire and a civilian-led political transition. Burhan rejected a subsequent US-led proposal that November, arguing it would dismantle state security institutions while leaving the RSF in place. The paramilitaries said they accepted the truce.
The UAE’s involvement has deepened mistrust of mediation. Sudan’s army-backed government severed diplomatic ties with Abu Dhabi in May 2025, accusing it of supporting the RSF. The UAE denies supplying weapons to the paramilitaries. Relations with Washington deteriorated further in September 2026 after the US questioned both factions’ legitimacy. Sudan rejected the remarks and called for peace efforts free from foreign dictates.
Meanwhile, rival administrations have entrenched Sudan’s divisions. Burhan’s government returned to Khartoum in January 2026 after the army recaptured the capital, having operated from Port Sudan during the fighting. In July 2025, the RSF-aligned TASIS coalition announced a rival government based in Nyala, Darfur, with Dagalo heading its governing council. The UN Security Council and African Union rejected the move.
The RSF has faced similar accusations from rights groups over attacks on civilians. In September, the Sudanese Alliance for Rights reported that five people were killed in an attack on a market in North Kordofan, while the Committee for Justice blamed the group for a courthouse strike that killed ten. On October 9, the Sudan Doctors Network accused the rebels of a drone attack on a displacement camp in Blue Nile state that killed 31 people, including four children.
Earlier this month, Russian diplomat Yulia Zhdanova said that Sudanese troops recovered US-supplied weapons intended for Ukraine from RSF fighters near Bara. Their markings indicated that they had been transferred to Kiev in December 2024, she said, according to TASS.
