UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has strongly condemned an escalation in drone strikes across Sudan this month, where the UN Human Rights Office documented at least 306 deaths and hundreds of injuries during the first three weeks of October. The strikes, attributed to both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), hit civilian objects and infrastructure including homes, markets, hospitals, displacement sites, power stations and water sources, in Kordofan, Darfur, Blue Nile, Khartoum and other states, the office said.
Source: OHCHR, Oct 23 statement reported Oct 26
'The increasing use of drones, already accounting for the majority of conflict-related civilian deaths in Sudan this year, is deeply disturbing and is exacting a horrifying toll,' Türk said. 'Scores of civilians have been killed and vital infrastructure and services on which they depend eviscerated, driving further displacement and deepening the already severe humanitarian crisis,' he said, renewing his call on the parties to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, including by not directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects. Sudan's army and the RSF have been at war since April 2023.
Source: OHCHR / UN News
Displacement sites, markets and a hospital hit
The office documented numerous drone strikes on displacement sites, where people who had already fled the fighting had sought shelter. Between 6 and 10 October, alleged drone strikes on shelters in Ghubeish and El Nuhud in West Kordofan, attributed to the SAF, killed at least 25 civilians and injured 31 others, including women and children. On 9 October, an alleged RSF drone struck a crowd of displaced people engaged in artisanal gold mining near a displacement site in Abu Shendi, Blue Nile, killing at least 31 people, most of them women and children, and alleged RSF strikes on the Bajaun gold mining area in Gadeer locality, South Kordofan, on 9 and 16 October killed 42 civilians and injured 25, the office said. On 18 October, at least 139 people were killed when a transportation truck was hit in a 'double tap' repeat strike in Dibab, West Kordofan, an RSF-controlled area, UN News reported.
Source: OHCHR; UN News, Oct 23
Markets and hospitals have also been hit, including an RSF-attributed strike on Um Darfa hospital in Blue Nile on 11 October that seriously injured two health workers and left the facility non-operational, UN News reported. Türk urged both parties and their affiliates to commit to a ceasefire and a negotiated settlement that places human rights at its centre, backed by accountability, and said peace efforts must address the continuing influx of weapons fuelling the conflict. The Eastleigh Voice, reporting the same UN figures, said drones already account for the majority of conflict-related civilian deaths in Sudan this year.