Tragic Drone Attack Kills 30 Displaced Civilians in Sudan's Blue Nile Region

A devastating drone strike in southeastern Sudan has claimed the lives of at least 30 displaced people, including numerous women and children, while leaving dozens of others injured.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Friday, the governor of Wad al-Mahi province reported that a drone belonging to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) struck the center of the province, resulting in the deaths of 26 women and four children. Governor Mahjoub Al-Sheikh condemned the assault as “cowardly” and stated, according to the AFP news agency, that the drone was launched from “inside Ethiopia”.

Al Jazeera Arabic’s Sudan correspondent, Wadah Al-Tahir, noted that this assault is part of an ongoing wave of drone strikes directed at the Blue Nile region, this time hitting Wad al-Mahi province near the city of Damazin.

The strike occurred just outside a displacement camp and near an informal gold mining site, where women work daily using chemicals and their bare hands to extract gold nuggets from earth previously dug up by men. The border region with Ethiopia has emerged as a critical new frontline in the ongoing conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF, amid broader concerns over internal tensions in Ethiopia.

Sudan has frequently claimed that Ethiopia provides sanctuary to RSF fighters and bases, though Ethiopia has consistently denied these accusations. According to AFP, local sources indicate that the porous border remains a vital supply corridor for the paramilitary group and its allies.

The RSF's push toward Damazin threatens to pressure the Sudanese army into defending multiple fronts simultaneously, including the Blue Nile region and the Kordofan region, where a prolonged campaign of deadly drone strikes has resulted in a strategic deadlock.

Humanitarian aid organizations estimate that the civil war in Sudan has claimed upwards of 200,000 lives since erupting in April 2023, generating a catastrophic global hunger and displacement emergency. United Nations data indicates that nearly 100,000 individuals have been displaced within Blue Nile state over the course of this year alone.