A suspected drone strike launched by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) hit a prison in Sudan’s Kordofan region on Saturday, killing at least 20 inmates and wounding 50 others, authorities said.
The attack targeted the main prison in Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, according to Information Minister Khalid Aleiser, who also serves as spokesman for the military-aligned government.
The minister accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of carrying out the strike as the group escalates drone attacks on military-held areas across Sudan.
Sudan descended into war in April 2023 after long-simmering tensions between the military and the RSF erupted into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and other regions. Obeid is located about 225 miles southwest of Khartoum.
There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which earlier this month launched a multi-day drone assault on Port Sudan, a Red Sea city serving as the interim base for Sudan’s government. Those strikes hit the city’s airports, seaport and fuel storage facilities.
The military has also carried out attacks, including a recent strike on Nyala airport in South Darfur, where the RSF receives foreign military supplies, including drones.
Meanwhile, in Darfur, an RSF artillery strike Friday on a displacement camp killed at least 14 people, according to the Emergency Room, an activist group monitoring the war. The dead included two parents, their eight children and the children’s grandmother.
The RSF has launched near-daily attacks on the camp and the nearby city of el-Fasher, North Darfur’s capital, which the paramilitary group has tried to seize for over a year.
Last month, RSF fighters overran Zamzam, Sudan’s largest displacement camp, killing more than 400 people and forcing survivors to flee.
The conflict has killed at least 24,000 people, though the actual toll is believed to be far higher. It has displaced about 13 million, including 4 million who fled to neighboring countries, and pushed parts of Sudan into famine.
The United Nations and international rights groups say the war has been marked by widespread atrocities, including mass rape and ethnically driven killings, which amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly in Darfur.