A drone attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) struck a vehicle carrying displaced families near the city of Er Rahad in North Kordofan province, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, the Sudan Doctors Network said on Saturday. The vehicle had been transporting people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area; among the dead children were two infants.
Several others were wounded and taken for treatment in Er Rahad, which faces severe shortages of medical supplies like many parts of Kordofan, the doctors’ group said. The Sudan Doctors Network urged the international community and rights organisations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations.” There was no immediate comment from the RSF.
The strike comes amid nearly three years of fighting between the RSF and the Sudanese military, which erupted into open conflict in April 2023 and has left tens of thousands dead and millions displaced. The war has produced what the UN calls the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with more than 14 million people forced from their homes, disease outbreaks, and parts of the country sliding into famine.
On Friday, a drone attack on a World Food Programme (WFP) aid convoy in North Kordofan killed one person and wounded several others, Denise Brown, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said. The convoy was en route to deliver life-saving food assistance to displaced people in El Obeid when it was struck, burning trucks and destroying the aid. Brown said attacks on aid operations undermine efforts to reach people facing hunger and displacement. Last week, a drone strike near a WFP facility in Blue Nile province wounded a WFP worker.
Emergency Lawyers, an independent group documenting atrocities in Sudan, blamed the RSF for the attack on the displaced families, and the Sudan Doctors Network called it a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law [which] amounts to a full-fledged war crime.” U.S. adviser for African and Arab affairs Massad Boulos condemned the attacks on X, saying destroying food for people in need and killing humanitarian workers is “sickening” and urging accountability. Britain’s international development and Africa minister Jenny Chapman called the WFP convoy attack “disgraceful,” saying aid workers and humanitarian operations bringing vital food should never be targeted.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry issued a strong statement criticizing the RSF for recent drone strikes, including on the vehicle of displaced families, the WFP convoy, and a hospital in Kordofan that killed 22 people. The statement called on the RSF to stop attacks on civilians and aid convoys and accused foreign parties of delivering illegal arms, mercenaries and foreign fighters—an apparent reference to the United Arab Emirates, which has been accused by rights groups and UN experts of arming the paramilitary group; the UAE has denied those accusations.
Kordofan has become a flashpoint in the war; earlier this year the army managed to break RSF sieges of two major cities in the region. UN figures put the death toll from the war at more than 40,000, though aid groups say that is likely an undercount.
A report released by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned that famine is spreading. It said famine was confirmed in two more areas in Darfur where it had earlier been identified in a displacement camp in August 2024, and that acute malnutrition is expected to worsen in 2026. The IPC projects a 13.5% increase in cases of acute malnutrition among children under five and pregnant and breastfeeding women—from 3.7 million in 2025 to nearly 4.2 million in 2026—and expects severe acute malnutrition, the most deadly form, to rise to about 800,000 cases, up 4% from 2025.
Mohamed Abdiladif, country director for Save the Children in Sudan, said children are already dying from hunger-related causes in many parts of the country. “Every day we hear devastating stories of parents selling the last of what they own simply to keep their children alive from one day to the next,” he said.
