Sudan war: 52 killed in West Kordofan drone convoy carnage

At least 52 people have been killed, including 17 or more women from the same family – have been killed when a drone, allegedly launched by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), targeted a convoy of two vehicles carrying mostly women and children from the As Sunaytah area south of Abu Zabad, to El Fula in West Kordofan yesterday. Witnesses say that the party was travelling to El Fula to offer condolences to the families of victims of an earlier drone strike.

A resident of the area told Radio Dabanga that the group had previously been displaced from Kadugli in South Kordofan to the As Sunaytah area near Abu Zabad. The dead include men, women, and children, but the majority are women, some pregnant, nursing mothers, and seniors are among the dead.

He underlined that that “the victims were civilians, unarmed, not wearing military uniforms, and clearly had no connection to the ongoing military operations”. He accused the army and those responsible for the attack of deliberately targeting civilians and women, adding that “this is a crime against humanity and a war crime that should not go unpunished,” and calling on all human rights organisations, activists, and civil society organisations to condemn this crime, which violates international law and norms”.

Sudan’s Constituent Alliance (Tasees) warned in a statement following the strike that it “reserves the right to respond to these attacks”, considering it “a continuation of the army’s crimes against unarmed civilians during the month of Ramadan”.

Both sides have intensified their drone strikes over the past two days, killing dozens of civilians in Darfur, Kordofan and White Nile.

According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, the United Nations expressed concern over the escalation of drone attacks in a number of states of the country over the past days.