Sudanese army drone strike kills 35 at Darfur court, rights group says

Sudan's army carried out a drone strike on Sunday against a traditional court in the village of Garra al-Zawaya in North Darfur, killing 35 people and wounding others, according to the Emergency Lawyers group. The organisation, which has documented abuses by both the army and rival paramilitary forces during the three-year conflict, said the strike occurred at about 1:00 pm local time (11:00 GMT) while civilians had gathered to attend hearings on local cases and disputes. The village is controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been fighting the army since April 2023.

A witness from the area told AFP on condition of anonymity that the court session was being held under a tree with local community leaders taking part. The witness said the dead included four tribal leaders and two RSF commanders. There was no immediate response from the army. The RSF's self-declared government condemned the attack as "a horrific crime", reporting 37 killed and 50 wounded.

Garra al-Zawaya lies near Kabkabiya town, about 150 km west of El-Fasher, the army's last stronghold in Darfur before RSF captured it in a bloody offensive last October. UN investigators have said the violence linked to the RSF's siege and capture of El-Fasher bears "the hallmarks of genocide". After taking the city, the RSF, which evolved from the Janjaweed militia, consolidated control over much of the region.

Both sides have increasingly turned to drone warfare since the El-Fasher campaign. According to the UN, more than 1,000 civilians were killed in drone strikes in the first five months of this year. Last week, after losing control of a key highway linking Khartoum and El-Obeid, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo told his fighters to consider themselves "unleashed" in the war against the army. El-Obeid, the largest city in the southern Kordofan region, has faced intense drone attacks in recent weeks, prompting the UN to issue a "red alert" over an unfolding catastrophe there. The UN has repeatedly warned that RSF advances could lead to mass atrocities.

The conflict between Daglo and army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and created what the UN calls the world's largest hunger and displacement crises. Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians; the RSF has faced particular accusations of systematic sexual violence, looting and mass atrocities.