Sudan drone attack on RSF-controlled town kills 10

The strike sparked fire in shops and caused extensive material damage

Sudanese Army Forces in Gedaref in August 2025. AFP

A drone attack on a busy market in Sudan's North Darfur state killed 10 people at the weekend, first responders said on Sunday.

The attack came as fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensified elsewhere in the country.

Both sides in Sudan's civil war are accused of war crimes. Several of their leaders have been sanctioned by the US, the EU and the UN.

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The North Darfur Emergency Rooms Council, one of hundreds of volunteer groups co-ordinating aid across Sudan, said a drone attacked Al Harra market in the RSF-controlled town of Malha on Saturday. The attack killed 10 people, it added.

It did not identify who carried out the attack, which it said had also sparked "fire in shops and caused extensive material damage". There was no immediate comment from either SAF or the RSF.

This month, a report by Sudan Witness, an independent group monitoring the conflict, said air strikes by SAF since the start of the civil war in 2023 have killed at least 1,719 civilians and wounded more than a thousand.

The war's focal point is now South Kordofan and clashes have escalated in Kadugli, the state capital, where a drone attack last week killed eight people as they attempted to flee the SAF-controlled city.

Sudanese refugee girls carry water supplies near a polling station in the refugee camp of Zamzam. AP

A source from a humanitarian organisation operating in Kadugli told AFP on Sunday that such groups had "evacuated all their workers" from the city because of the security conditions. The evacuation followed the UN decision to move its logistics operations from Kadugli.

Kadugli and nearby Dilling have been besieged by paramilitary forces since the war started. Last week, the RSF claimed control of the Brno area, a defensive line on the road between Kadugli and Dilling.

After dislodging SAF in October from the western city of El Fasher, its last stronghold in the Darfur region, the RSF has shifted its focus to resource-rich Kordofan, a crossroads linking army-held northern and eastern territories with RSF-held Darfur in the west.

Meanwhile, Sudan's Prime Minister Kamil Idris left for New York on Saturday to meet the UN chief and other officials and discuss humanitarian access and a possible ceasefire, according to government sources.

Last week, Washington and Riyadh agreed on “practical steps” to bring about a humanitarian truce.