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No fewer than 70 people have been confirmed killed in a drone strike on a mosque in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, according to a senior medical source.
The source said the attack took place on Friday during morning prayers in the city of El-Fasher, which has been under siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for over a year, according to the BBC.
While the strike has been blamed on the RSF, the group has not claimed responsibility.
A resident reportedly told the BBC the drone hit as worshippers gathered, “killing dozens of people instantly.”
According to the medical source, at least 78 people died and about 20 others were injured, though efforts to extract bodies from the rubble were still ongoing.
A footage emerged, showing around 30 bodies wrapped in shrouds and blankets laid beside the mosque in the western part of the city.
The RSF and the Sudanese army have been locked in a devastating civil war for more than two years.
El-Fasher, the last army stronghold in Darfur, remains home to more than 300,000 civilians who are trapped by the fighting.
This week, the RSF launched a fresh offensive on the city, including what reports described as fierce attacks on Abu Shouk, a camp for displaced people nearby.
Satellite images analysed by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) suggest RSF units now control much of the camp and have entered the headquarters of the Joint Forces, a coalition of armed groups allied to the army.
The base, located in a former UN compound, has been a critical line of defence.
The BBC has verified footage of RSF fighters inside the complex, though it is unclear if they hold full control.
If consolidated, these advances would bring El-Fasher’s airport and the army’s division headquarters within direct RSF firing range.
The HRL has warned that “El-Fasher will fall to the RSF unless the Sudanese military receives immediate reinforcements.”
Analysts fear such a development would cement RSF control over western Sudan and deepen the country’s de facto split, with the army holding the north and east.
Activists and aid agencies have expressed alarm over the fate of civilians in El-Fasher, most of whom belong to ethnic groups historically targeted by the RSF.
On Friday, a UN report warned of the “increasing ethnicisation of the conflict,” citing retaliatory attacks by both sides on people accused of collaborating with their enemies.
However, international organizations, including the UN, have documented what they describe as a systematic RSF campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Arab communities.
In a recent report, Doctors Without Borders said RSF troops “spoke of plans to ‘clean El-Fasher’ of its non-Arab… community.”
