Civilian toll rises as Sudan’s Darfur conflict intensifies, with drone attacks hitting displacement shelters and hospitals amid dire humanitarian conditions.
At least 57 people, including 22 women and 17 children, were killed when Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a drone and artillery strike on a displacement shelter in the besieged city of El-Fasher in North Darfur, medical sources report. The attack also wounded 21 people, including five children and seven women, many with serious injuries.
The Dar al-Arqam displacement center, located at the Omdurman Islamic University, was targeted late Friday in what local activists are calling a “massacre”. The El-Fasher Resistance Committee described the victims as “children, women, and the elderly killed in cold blood, many burned”, and urged international intervention to prevent further atrocities.
This strike is part of an escalating civil war between Sudan’s paramilitary RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), now well into its third year. El-Fasher, the last major city controlled by SAF in western Darfur, has endured intensified RSF attacks since the army recaptured Khartoum in March.
According to the United Nations, at least 53 civilians were killed in El-Fasher locality alone between October 5–8. Tens of thousands have died nationwide, and millions have been displaced, creating what humanitarian organizations call the world’s largest humanitarian emergency.
The city’s population has plummeted 62%, from 1.11 million to just 413,454 people, with around 260,000 trapped under blockade conditions. Many residents are living underground in shelters to escape heavy shelling. Mohamed Badawi, a human rights activist, said the RSF uses air strikes to force civilians out, aiming to seize control of the city.
The humanitarian situation is dire. Markets have collapsed, food scarcity is extreme, and aid access is blocked, forcing residents to survive on animal feed and food waste, according to a UN Development Programme report. Satellite imagery reveals systematic destruction around El-Fasher, including burned villages and displacement camps, with evidence of ethnic targeting against non-Arab communities.
Health facilities have not been spared. El-Fasher’s only functioning hospital, the Saudi Maternity Hospital, was attacked three times last week, killing six people, including a child. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for the immediate protection of health facilities, while the EU crisis management commissioner Hadja Lahbib condemned the attacks as “mindless”. The International Committee of the Red Cross reports that ambulances are often blocked or destroyed, and most hospitals in Khartoum are non-operational.
Samuel Sileshi, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, warned: “The magnitude of humanitarian need in Sudan is quite staggering. Unfortunately, cuts to international aid are adding insult to injury.”
As the war continues, El-Fasher remains trapped under siege, its population suffering amid relentless violence, food scarcity, and collapsed infrastructure — a stark reminder of the human cost of Sudan’s civil war.