‘Drones hit paramilitary locations in west Sudan’

Three drone strikes have hit key paramilitary positions in western Sudan, witnesses said on Sunday, as fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) escalates in the war-torn region.

The strikes in Nyala, the South Darfur state capital, targeted a hotel and a medical unit in the city centre and RSF-held positions on the eastern outskirts, residents said.

“We saw ambulances transporting the wounded to several hospitals,” one resident told reporters in a message.

RSF bombarded the key southern city of El Obeid on Friday, killing six people in a hospital, as doctors in the capital Khartoum fought to contain a cholera outbreak.

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said they were “appalled” by the latest strike, adding: “Attacks on health must stop. We call for protection of all health infrastructure and health personnel. The best medicine is peace.”

An army source told reporters the drone strike on the Social Insurance Hospital, which also wounded 12, was part of a simultaneous strike on residential areas of the city with heavy artillery.

The bombardment had also hit a second hospital in the city centre, the source added.

A medical source at El Obeid Hospital, the city’s main facility, confirmed the toll.

El Obeid, a strategic city 400 kilometres southwest of Khartoum, was besieged by the RSF for nearly two years before the regular army broke the siege in February.

It was one of a series of counteroffensives that later saw the army recapture Khartoum.

The RSF has controlled much of Nyala since the conflict began in April 2023 between army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Air strikes on RSF positions have intensified, hitting Nyala airport - a key RSF base - and other targets.

In early May, army planes bombed RSF sites in Nyala and the West Darfur capital, El Geneina, destroying depots and equipment, a military source said.

Agencies