Sudan’s RSF accused of launching drone strikes on civilian infrastructure in Central Sudan
Earlier this month, a U.N.-mandated mission accused RSF of having committed multiple crimes against humanity during the siege of al-Fashir in the western Darfur region
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out drone strikes on a power station and other civilian facilities yesterday in White Nile State, central Sudan, according to a statement from Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council.
Earlier this month, a U.N.-mandated mission accused RSF of having committed multiple crimes against humanity during the siege of al-Fashir in the western Darfur region.
Those come on top of atrocities by both the RSF and its enemy, Sudan’s army, in a broader civil war now in its third year, the mission said in a report that strengthened earlier findings.
“At dawn today (Sunday), the rebel militia launched suicidal drones targeting civilian facilities and infrastructure,” the statement said, noting that the drones mainly targeted the Um Dabakir power station and fuel depots in White Nile State as well as the Kenana civilian airport.
The council accused the RSF of continued violations that “could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
A military source in the city of Kosti, White Nile State, said that Sudanese army air defenses responded early Sunday morning to a squadron of drones launched by the RSF.
“Ground-based air defense systems were able to intercept several of the drones,” the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity, noting that the attacks targeted three cities in White Nile State, namely the state capital Rabak, Kosti, and Kenana.
An eyewitness told Xinhua that the strikes hit the Sudanese army’s air base in Kenana, the headquarters of the army’s 18th Division in Kosti, and the Um Dabakir power station in Rabak.
The RSF has not commented on the attacks.
Sudan remains gripped by a conflict that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions, both internally and across borders, deepening the country’s humanitarian crisis.
“The RSF has further committed crimes against humanity, including large-scale killings, sexual and gender-based violence, looting, and the destruction of livelihoods at times rising to persecution and extermination,” the chair of the fact-finding UN mission, Mohamed Chande Othman, said in a statement.
The three-person U.N. team is mandated by the U.N. Human Rights Council to investigate abuses. It said it based its latest report on more than 200 interviews, many of them with survivors of violence, as well as video material and submissions from civil organisations.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been living under siege in the Sudanese army’s last holdout in al-Fashir, capital of North Darfur state, now the frontline of the conflict.
