Drone strike kills at least 10 civilians in West Darfur

A drone strike killed at least 10 civilians and wounded five others in Sudan’s West Darfur state on Saturday, according to local officials and tribal leaders.

Babiker Hamdein, the Darfur regional government’s minister of health and social welfare, reported at least 10 deaths and five injuries. He blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for the strike.

The attack occurred on October 17 in Sanaqit, near Bir Siliba in Sirba locality, close to the border with Chad.

Hamdein said the victims were internally displaced people who had fled villages including Naroma, Karmalia and Qarmba after their homes were burned and their property looted. They had sought refuge in Sanaqit, near the Sudanese-Chadian border, he said.

Hamdein criticised what he described as international silence over attacks on displaced people and called for those responsible to be held accountable.

In a separate statement, the Mararit tribal leadership said the victims were harvesting crops when the drone struck. It said the displaced families had lost their homes and property about two years earlier and fled towards the Chadian border with the livestock they had managed to retain.

The community leaders also shared a video reviewed by Radio Tamazuj showing victims of the strike.

The statement said the victims included children as young as three and elderly people. It called on Sudanese authorities, the United Nations, humanitarian agencies and human rights organisations to provide displaced families with shelter, food, medicine and protection.

“These people need safe shelter, food, medicine and protection,” the Mararit tribal leadership said.

The tribal leadership also urged the Darfur regional government and local authorities to establish safe, properly equipped sites for displaced people, particularly women, children and older people, and to provide urgent humanitarian assistance.

Major Mutawakkil Ali Wakil, spokesman for the Joint Force, an alliance of former Darfur rebel groups aligned with Sudan’s army, also condemned the strike and called for those responsible to be held accountable.

“Targeting innocent civilians constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and a crime that cannot be justified under any circumstances,” Mutawakkil said.

RSF officials in West Darfur could not immediately be reached for comment.

Sudan has been at war since April 15, 2023, when fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF over power and plans to integrate the two forces.

The RSF controls most of Darfur and parts of Kordofan, while the army controls much of northern, eastern and central Sudan. Fighting continues in parts of Kordofan and Blue Nile. The war has displaced millions of people and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.

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