A drone attack by Rapid Support Forces fighters hit a vehicle carrying displaced families near the town of Er Rahad in North Kordofan, killing at least 24 people, including eight children, Sudan Doctors Network said on Saturday. The victims were among those who had fled fighting in the Dubeiker area; two of the dead children were infants. Several others were wounded and taken to medical facilities in Er Rahad, which—like much of Kordofan—is facing severe shortages of medicines and supplies, the doctors’ group said.
The Sudan Doctors Network called on the international community and human rights organisations to “take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable,” and said the attack amounted to a grave breach of humanitarian law. The RSF had not issued an immediate comment.
The strike is the latest in almost three years of open warfare between the RSF and Sudan’s armed forces, which began in April 2023 and has produced tens of thousands of deaths and millions of displaced people. The United Nations describes the situation as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with more than 14 million people uprooted, widespread disease outbreaks and parts of the country edging toward famine.
On Friday, a separate drone strike struck a World Food Programme aid convoy in North Kordofan, killing one person and wounding others, UN humanitarian coordinator Denise Brown said. The convoy was delivering life-saving food to displaced people in El Obeid when trucks were set ablaze and the aid destroyed. Brown warned that attacks on assistance operations hinder efforts to reach hungry and displaced populations. Last week, a drone strike near a WFP facility in Blue Nile province wounded a WFP staff member.
Emergency Lawyers, an independent monitor of atrocities in Sudan, attributed the strike on the displaced families to the RSF. The Sudan Doctors Network described the attack as a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime. U.S. adviser for African and Arab affairs Massad Boulos condemned the assaults on social media, calling the destruction of food supplies and attacks on aid workers “sickening” and demanding accountability. Britain’s international development and Africa minister, Jenny Chapman, called the WFP convoy attack “disgraceful,” stressing that aid operations and humanitarian personnel must not be targeted.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry issued a strong rebuke of recent RSF drone strikes, including those that hit the displaced families’ vehicle, the WFP convoy, and a hospital in Kordofan that reportedly killed 22 people. The statement urged the RSF to cease attacks on civilians and relief convoys and accused foreign actors of supplying 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 providing arms to the paramilitary force; the UAE denies these claims.
Kordofan has become a major battleground in the conflict; earlier this year the regular army broke RSF sieges on two of the region’s main cities. UN tallies put the war’s death toll at more than 40,000, a figure aid organisations say is likely an undercount.
A recent Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report warned that famine is spreading. The IPC said famine was confirmed in two additional areas of Darfur where it had previously been found in a displacement camp in August 2024, and projected that acute malnutrition will worsen in 2026. The agency forecasts a 13.5% rise in 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 deadliest form, to climb to roughly 800,000 cases, about 4% higher than 2025.
Mohamed Abdiladif, Save the Children’s country director in Sudan, warned that children are already dying from hunger-related causes across 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.