Drone Strike in Sudan Kills Two Children, Injures Dozen in El-Rahad

A drone strike, attributed to Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), killed two children and injured 12 others on Wednesday in the southern city of El-Rahad, a medical source told AFP.

El-Rahad, located in the Kordofan region, has become one of the fiercest battlegrounds in the ongoing conflict between the RSF and Sudan’s regular army, which began in April 2023.

“I saw a dozen students injured,” eyewitness Ahmed Moussa told AFP, adding that the strike had hit a traditional Koranic school.

The city, in North Kordofan state, was retaken by the army in February last year during a rapid offensive aimed at breaking a long-standing siege on the state capital, El-Obeid. Since then, the RSF has attempted to re-encircle El-Obeid, launching multiple drone strikes on the main highway linking Darfur in the west with the capital, Khartoum.

The war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced around 11 million people, triggering the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises. The conflict has effectively split Sudan, with the army controlling the north, center, and east, while the RSF and its allies hold the west and parts of the south.