World

RSF Drone Strike Kills 30 in Sudan’s Blue Nile Province

By Al Jazeera Staff

A drone attack attributed to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) struck the centre of Wad al‑Mahi province in Sudan’s Blue Nile region, killing 26 women and four children and wounding dozens more. The governor of Wad al‑Mahi, Mahjoub Al‑Sheikh, called the attack “cowardly” and said the drone was launched from inside Ethiopia, according to AFP. The strike occurred just outside a displacement camp near an informal gold‑mining site where women work with chemicals to extract gold. The incident is part of a series of drone attacks on the Blue Nile area. Sudan has accused Ethiopia of harbouring RSF fighters and bases, a claim Ethiopia denies; local reports suggest the porous border is a key supply line for the paramilitary. The RSF’s offensive toward Damazin could force the army to defend positions on both the Blue Nile front and in Kordofan, where a year of drone strikes has left the conflict deadlocked. Aid workers estimate that the civil war, which began in April 2023, has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced nearly 100,000 in Blue Nile state alone, according to United Nations figures.