Three years into Sudan’s devastating civil conflict between the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a deadly drone attack has left dozens dead and wounded in the restive Darfur region, amplifying global concerns over escalating violence against civilian populations.
A local Sudanese human rights monitoring group, the Emergency Lawyers Group, has confirmed that 35 people lost their lives in the Sunday afternoon strike, which hit an open-air traditional court session in Ghara al-Zawiya village. The village is currently under RSF control, a faction that holds sway over most of Darfur, Sudan’s western territory. Dozens of additional civilians and attendees were injured in the attack, and as of Monday, the Sudanese army has not issued any public statement acknowledging or responding to the incident.
Witnesses to the strike shared chilling details with Agence France-Presse, confirming that the informal court gathering was held under a tree, with local community leaders in attendance. Among those killed were four prominent tribal leaders and two RSF commanders, the witness reported. Local outlet Darfur 24, a privately owned regional news site, cited a resident who said two unmanned aerial vehicles circled the settlement before launching at least four missiles into the gathering.
The Emergency Lawyers Group has issued an official statement condemning the attack, calling for an immediate independent investigation into the strike. The organization emphasized that deliberately targeting civilian gatherings and community infrastructure constitutes a severe violation of established international humanitarian law. It also drew attention to a worrying growing trend in the conflict: the increasing use of drone strikes to target populated civilian areas and public gatherings, a shift that has drastically raised safety risks for millions of Sudanese civilians trapped in crossfire.
The current conflict, which broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF, has already been marked by widespread atrocities against civilian populations on both sides. The RSF has faced repeated accusations of war crimes and mass atrocities, including large-scale drone strikes targeting civilian communities over the course of the three-year war. A United Nations fact-finding mission concluded last year that the RSF’s prolonged siege and assault on el-Fasher, Darfur’s largest remaining major city, carried all the identifying characteristics of genocide—a finding the RSF has repeatedly denied.
As the army continues to mobilize its supporters amid ongoing frontline clashes across the country, the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan shows no sign of abating. The conflict has killed more than tens of thousands of people to date, and forced millions more to flee their homes as internally displaced persons or cross-border refugees into neighboring countries.