At least 11 people were killed and dozens more injured after a drone strike targeted a market in Sudan's Kordofan region on Saturday, according to a human rights monitoring group.
The attack struck the central market in Abu Zabad, a town in North Kordofan that is under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese organisation that documents abuses committed during the country's civil war.
The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF erupted in April 2023 and has since devastated large parts of the country.
Emergency Lawyers warned that the death toll from the latest strike could rise further.
No immediate claim of responsibility
The rights group did not attribute responsibility for the attack to either side in the conflict, and neither the army nor the RSF had commented at the time of publication.
According to the organisation, similar drone strikes targeted villages and civilian vehicles in the surrounding area in the hours before the market attack.
The incident highlights the growing use of drones in a conflict that has increasingly relied on long-range attacks against military and civilian targets alike.
Further strike reported in El Obeid
Two witnesses told AFP that a separate drone strike also hit a fuel station in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, which has been under RSF siege for months.
A medical source said four people were injured in that attack.
The strikes capped an especially deadly week in the Kordofan region, where nearly 70 people were reportedly killed in a series of separate attacks.
Rising civilian toll
Drone warfare has become an increasingly significant feature of Sudan's conflict.
According to United Nations figures, at least 880 civilians were killed in drone attacks between January and April this year.
The war, now in its fourth year, has claimed more than 200,000 lives according to some estimates and displaced millions of people.
The United Nations has described the situation in Sudan as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with widespread hunger, displacement and violence continuing across much of the country.
