KHARTOUM: A pick-up truck carrying dozens of people to a funeral in Sudan’s southern Kordofan region was hit by a drone strike, killing 40, a medical source at the local hospital told AFP on Wednesday.
Sudan has for nearly three years been gripped by a war between its regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, killing tens of thousands and displacing millions more.
Kordofan is currently the fiercest battlefield, where near-daily drone strikes kill dozens at a time.
“Yesterday, 40 people, mostly women, were killed when their pick-up truck was hit by a drone strike on the road between Abu Zabad and El-Fula,” two towns in Sudan’s West Kordofan state, a medical source at Abu Zabad Hospital said, requesting anonymity for his safety.
“They were on their way to El-Fula for a funeral, which is why several members of the same family died,” Abu Zabad resident Hamad Abdallah added, saying they had all been “buried in the same place.”
Abdallah had on Sunday helped bury 20 people, including four relatives, after another drone strike blamed on the army hit the local market.
Neither Abdallah nor the medical source was able to say who launched the latest strike, which came just hours after another killed seven people including three children in the South Kordofan city of Dilling.

- Deadly drones -

The Kordofan region, home to oil deposits, arable land and the RSF’s most powerful paramilitary allies, connects the RSF’s strongholds in the Darfur region with the country’s army-controlled east.
The RSF controls West Kordofan and has for months pushed eastwards, in an attempt to recapture Sudan’s central corridor.
The army has pushed back, breaking paramilitary sieges on two key cities and attempting to cut off the RSF’s supply link with Darfur.
In their battle for territory, both sides have relied on advanced drone warfare, drawing frequent condemnation from the United Nations and suggesting healthy supply routes from their foreign backers.
An army drone strike on Sunday on the South Darfur state capital Nyala killed 11 people and wounded 20, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
The local RSF-allied administration said the army attack had struck a market in the city, where the paramilitary has declared a parallel government.
MSF said “drone strikes are being carried out in all areas of Sudan, by all warring parties, with civilians being killed and injured.”
Since the war broke out in April 2023, both sides have been accused of war crimes including targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.