Drone strikes kill up to 23 in central Sudanese city of el-Obeid

Drone strikes on the central Sudanese city of el-Obeid have killed up to 23 people, officials and a rights group have reported.

Both sources reported on Thursday that overnight attacks had killed several people across the key hub in the southern Kordofan region. The reports concerned the latest in a series of attacks using unmanned aircraft, illustrating that drone warfare has become an increasingly prominent feature in the conflict, which erupted in April 2023 between the military government and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Local rights group Emergency Lawyers said on social media that 23 people were killed and 19 others wounded. Health officials at el-Obeid Hospital said that 15 were killed and more than 10 wounded in the attacks, which hit residential areas, a funeral gathering and a truck carrying food supplies, as well as areas near army positions.

Emergency Lawyers blamed the attack on the RSF, which did not immediately claim responsibility. Al Jazeera couldn’t independently verify the claim.

This incident comes less than a week after a drone strike targeted the main market in Abu Zaeima, a paramilitary-controlled town in North Kordofan state, killing at least 11 people and injuring dozens more. Neither side has claimed responsibility.

The United Nations said in May that at least 880 civilians had been killed in drone strikes nationwide between January and April.

Fighting has intensified in recent months in the Kordofan region and Blue Nile state near the Ethiopian border, particularly after the RSF captured el-Fasher last October, the army’s last major stronghold in western Darfur.

Kordofan remains a key battleground, linking RSF strongholds in Darfur to army-controlled areas in eastern Sudan, and continues to be fiercely contested. El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, has been partially encircled for months by paramilitary forces.

Now entering its fourth year, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 13 million others, creating what the UN describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.