Sudan’s army says its air defences have shot down an FH-95 drone in North Kordofan state, as fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensifies in the region.
The SAF said the drone was brought down on Thursday morning north-east of the Al-Kukaiti area in North Kordofan.
“Our air defences today managed to shoot down a hostile FH-95 drone north-east of the Al-Kukaiti area in North Kordofan state,” the army said in a statement.
A video circulated by army-aligned platforms and reviewed by Radio Tamazuj showed the wreckage of a drone, with soldiers gathered around it.
The RSF could not immediately be reached for comment.
The incident comes amid intensified fighting in North Kordofan, where the SAF and RSF have been battling for control of strategic areas and supply routes.
Drones have become a prominent feature of the war in Sudan. In July, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said his office had documented 15 drone strikes in and around El Obeid between 6 and 28 June, killing at least 45 civilians and injuring 41. He said drones operated by both sides had repeatedly struck markets, schools, fuel stations, water infrastructure and civilian vehicles.
More recently, drone strikes on two warehouses in Shikan locality, North Kordofan, on 20 September destroyed more than 292,000 school textbooks, 40,000 Arabic-language and mathematics review books and other educational materials, according to UNICEF. The agency did not identify those responsible for the strikes.
The war between the SAF and RSF began in April 2023 after a dispute over the integration of the two forces into a single military escalated into open fighting.
North Kordofan has become an important front in the conflict because of its strategic location and links between central Sudan and the western regions
and then