At least 30 civilians, including women and children, were killed in a drone strike near a displacement camp in Sudan’s southeastern Blue Nile region on Friday, according to local authorities, who accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of carrying out the attack.
The strike hit the Abu Shandi area of Wad al-Mahi locality, where families displaced by fighting have sought refuge and many residents rely on informal gold mining to survive.
Blue Nile’s regional government reported 30 fatalities and dozens of injuries, calling for an international investigation and accountability for those responsible.
Witnesses interviewed by AFP said the dead included 26 women and four children. Some victims had been working near an informal gold mine outside the displacement camp, where women and girls earn money by processing gold-bearing material.
The Blue Nile Civil Society Initiative separately reported that a drone struck a water facility in Abu Shandi, killing more than 20 people, most of them women and children.
Ali Hajjo, the initiative’s secretary-general, condemned the attack and called for stronger protection of civilians.
Civil society activist Issam Qeisan told Radio Tamazuj that many displaced families in the area had fled fighting in Qeisan locality and had not been registered for humanitarian assistance.
He said residents had turned to small-scale gold mining to support themselves and claimed the nearest military position was approximately 50 kilometres from the site of the strike.
Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese rights organisation, also blamed the RSF for the strike. In an initial assessment, the group reported eight children killed and 26 women seriously wounded, figures that differed from the regional government’s broader casualty count.
Authorities in Wad al-Mahi condemned the attack, warning that strikes affecting displacement shelters and essential civilian infrastructure were worsening the humanitarian emergency facing communities already uprooted by the war.
The regional government urged international human rights and humanitarian organisations to document the incident, investigate those responsible and ensure accountability.
The RSF had not publicly responded to the accusations at the time of reporting.
The incident comes amid intensifying hostilities in Blue Nile, a strategically important region bordering Ethiopia and South Sudan, where Sudan’s conflict has increasingly threatened communities living near contested areas.
Friday’s attack also follows a separate drone strike in Damazin earlier this week that killed at least four women, according to the Emergency Lawyers group, raising further concerns about civilian protection as fighting spreads across the region.
Under international humanitarian law, parties to armed conflicts must distinguish between civilians and military targets. Deliberate attacks on civilians, or indiscriminate attacks, may constitute war crimes.
The circumstances of the Abu Shandi strike, including the identity of the drone operator and the intended target, have not been independently established.
