A drone strike blamed on Sudan's Rapid Support Forces has killed 17 members of the family of a former paramilitary officer who defected to the army, witnesses and officials said on Monday.
A separate drone, also suspected to have been launched by the RSF, targeted Khartoum International Airport, leading to operations being suspended, the military-aligned Ministry of Information said. There were no casualties nor material damage, it added.
“Normal aviation operations will soon resume at Khartoum Airport once routine measures are completed,” a statement read.
Video clips posted online show smoke rising from what was purportedly the airport's grounds. The National could not independently verify the footage.
Witnesses and officials said the earlier strike hit the home of Abu Aqla Kaikal in the village of Al Kahly Zeidan, in Al Jazeera state, south of Khartoum, late on Saturday. Among those killed was his younger brother, Azzam.
The brothers had served in Sudan Shield, an auxiliary force allied with the army against the RSF in a civil war now entering its fourth year.
Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, the army chief and Sudan's de facto leader, visited Al Kahly Zeidan on Sunday night to offer his condolences, the military-led Sovereign Council said, blaming the attack on the RSF.
It was not clear whether the defector was in the house at the time of the attack. However, a video clip widely shared on Monday purported to show him in the region of Kordofan, south-west of the capital.
“Targeting women and children is a crime that lays bare the nature of the militia [RSF] and will not negatively impact on combat operations or the morale of the fighters,” he said in the footage.
The home was hit by projectiles launched from a drone, said the witnesses and officials. The RSF has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
Kaikal, an experienced military commander, defected to the army in 2024 and went on to play a pivotal role in recapturing Al Jazeera state, Sudan's agricultural heartland, before pushing towards Khartoum.
His Sudan Shield fighters are now in Kordofan in western Sudan and Blue Nile in the south.
Kaikal had been the most senior RSF commander to defect to the army until last month, when Maj Gen Al Nour Ahmed Adam fled from the RSF-held western region of Darfur and joined the armed forces in northern Sudan.
Saturday's attack appeared to be a reprisal and may signal the start of targeted killings aimed at figures who influence the battlefield, such as Kaikal. Following his defection, Gen Adam was stripped of his rank and sentenced to death in absentia by a paramilitary court, according to an RSF statement.
The attack on the Kaikal family home also underlined the increasing use by both sides of long-range drones.
In the past, the two sides have occasionally targeted the seats of their rival administrations – Port Sudan, where the military-aligned government is based, and Nyala in Darfur, seat of the RSF-backed administration.
Witnesses and officials said additional drone strikes blamed on the RSF were reported Friday, Saturday and Monday. Targets included a radio and television station and army positions in Al Obeid in Kordofan, as well as military sites in Omdurman, part of the greater Khartoum area along with Khartoum and Bahri.
In one attack, a car was hit in a military zone in the greater Khartoum area, killing its six occupants. Emergency Lawyers, a private Sudanese group that monitors the war, confirmed the attack on the car and the death toll. It said the RSF was responsible.
The war in Sudan broke out in April 2023, when months of tension between Gen Al Burhan and RSF commander Gen Mohamed Dagalo over their future in a democratic Sudan boiled over into open conflict in Khartoum before it swiftly spread.
The war has to date killed tens of thousands, displaced more than 13 million people and created the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with some 25 million – about half the population – facing hunger or food shortages.
Both Gen Al Burhan and Gen Dagalo claim to be fighting for a democratic and prosperous Sudan but they are widely believed by opponents to be pursuing their goal of ruling the impoverished though resource-rich country.
Al Shafie Ahmed contributed to this report from Kampala, Uganda.
