General al-Burhan’s army (SAF) has come under sharp condemnation after drones struck a humanitarian aid convoy in South Kordofan, killing three people and wounding four aid workers, according to humanitarian sources.
The convoy was targeted on Thursday in the Kartala area of South Kordofan while traveling to cities in the Kordofan region, one of the main theaters of fighting between the SAF and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), sources told Sky News Arabia.
Relief organizations report a recent surge in SAF drone attacks, which have severely disrupted humanitarian operations and caused extensive civilian harm. This has occurred despite the SAF’s claims that it has secured the area and lifted sieges on Kadugli and Dilling. At least 77 civilians have been killed by drone strikes in Kordofan states over the past ten days alone, according to local monitoring groups.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Wednesday that he was deeply alarmed by reports indicating that more than 50 civilians were killed in Sudan by drone strikes over just two days last week.
According to the United Nations, at least 57 civilians were killed between Sunday and Monday, including at least 15 children, in separate drone attacks across four Sudanese states.
Turk said the killings underscore the devastating consequences of drone warfare in Sudan, where civilians and civilian infrastructure are increasingly being targeted.
The UN reported that 28 civilians were killed on Sunday in a drone strike allegedly carried out by the SAF on Al-Safiyeh market in Sodari locality, North Kordofan. The following day, 26 civilians were killed in West Kordofan in what is believed to have been an SAF drone strike on a shelter housing displaced people in the Al-Sunut area.
“Continuous attacks by all parties on civilian objects must stop,” Türk said. “Urgent measures are needed to protect civilians, including refraining from the military use of civilian infrastructure.”
Separately, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo warned that the Sudan conflict risks taking on a regional dimension that could destabilize the wider area.
Speaking during a UN Security Council session in New York last Thursday, DiCarlo marked nearly three years since the outbreak of the war, describing it as “a thousand days of brutal conflict that has nearly destroyed Africa’s third-largest country.”
She said the war has been characterized by “horrific violence, unimaginable suffering, and total impunity for perpetrators of atrocities and war crimes,” adding that as the conflict approaches its fourth year, fighting continues to expand—particularly in North Darfur, North Kordofan, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile states.
Jamal Kabashi, Director of Humanitarian Response at Sudan’s Agency for Relief and Humanitarian Operations, confirmed in a phone interview with Sky News Arabia that the convoy was struck by SAF drones in the Kartala area of Habila locality, South Kordofan.
Kabashi said the convoy belonged to the World Food Programme and was en route to Dilling and Kadugli to deliver humanitarian assistance to war-affected civilians.
He condemned the attack as a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, warning that such strikes undermine lifesaving relief efforts and place aid workers at grave risk. He called for immediate guarantees to protect humanitarian convoys and ensure they are never targeted under any circumstances.
