A DRONE attack on a mosque in central Sudan has killed two children and injured 13 more, according to a Sudanese doctor’s association, amid a rise in similar attacks across the region.
The Sudan Doctors Network said the attack was carried out at dawn on Wednesday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group engaged in a three-year civil war with the Sudanese Armed Forces.
The children were reportedly studying the Quran at the Sheikh Ahmed al-Badawi Mosque in North Kordofan State when the building was hit by a drone in a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law and a grave assault on places of worship”, the doctors’ group said in a Facebook post.
“Targeting children inside mosques is a fully constituted crime that cannot be justified under any pretext and represents a dangerous escalation in the pattern of repeated violations against civilians,” the doctors said.
The Sudan Doctors Network said the RSF has previously targeted other religious buildings for attack, including a church in Khartoum and another mosque in el-Fasher, reflecting a “systematic pattern that shows clear disregard for the sanctity of life and religious sites”.
“The network calls on the international community, the United Nations, and human rights and humanitarian organizations to take urgent action to pressure for the end to the targeting of civilians, ensure their protection, open safe corridors for the delivery of medical and humanitarian aid, and work to document these violations and hold those responsible accountable,” it said.
The UN separately said on Wednesday that a recent series of drone attacks have been reported on civilian infrastructure in Sudan’s South Kordofan, North Kordofan and West Kordofan states.
A World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in Kadugli was also hit by a suspected rocket attack on Tuesday night, according to UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. He did not say which group was responsible for the attack.
“The fact that we have to reiterate almost every day that civilians and civilian infrastructure, places of worship, schools and hospitals cannot and should not be targeted is a tragedy in itself,” Dujarric told reporters.
The UN has warned that Sudan’s civil war is expanding from western Darfur into the Kordofan region.
It has documented more than 90 civilian deaths and 142 injuries caused by drone strikes between the end of January and February 6, which were carried out by the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces.
Targets included a WFP convoy, markets, health facilities and residential neighbourhoods in southern and northern Kordofan, the UN said.
