CAIRO (AP) — A drone strike on a town in Sudan’s Darfur region hit a wedding party, killing at least 30 civilians, including women and children, the United Nations said Thursday.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the U.N.’s secretary-general, said during a briefing that the wedding ceremony was in the town of Kutum in North Darfur.
The strike is the latest in an intensifying dronefare between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who have been at war since April 2023. The nearly three-year conflict in Sudan killed more than 40,000 people, according to U.N. figures, but aid groups say the true number could be much higher.
The Emergency Lawyers, a local rights group, and Resistance Committees in el-Fasher, a grassroots group tracking the war, blamed the Wednesday attack on the Sudanese Armed Forces in statements released on Thursday on social media.
“We condemn this and all attacks against civilians. Attacks using drones against civilians and civilian objects are unacceptable,” said Dujarric of the attack.
The army did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Emergency Lawyers previously said the “recurring pattern” of drone attacks by the warring parties since March in the provinces of South Kordofan, Blue Nile, East, Central and South Darfur displaced more people.
Last week, a drone attack that hit a hospital in the south-central part of the country killed at least 10 people. Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, said the RSF launched two drone strikes on al-Jabalain Hospital in the White Nile province, hitting an operating theater and a maternity ward.
“MSF is outraged by these repeated attacks on health care, which have escalated dangerously in recent weeks,” said Esperanza Santos, MSF head of emergencies for Sudan, at the time. “Health facilities, medical staff and patients must always be protected. We call on RSF and SAF to immediately stop this spiral of violence against medical facilities.”
A surge in drone strikes in the Sudanese region of Kordofan has also taken a growing toll on civilians and hampered aid operations, analysts and humanitarian workers previously said.