AhlulBayt News Agency: The United Nations has warned that civilians are suffering the most as Sudan’s brutal civil war escalates. The warning came on the same day that dozens were killed in a deadly attack in Darfur.
Sudan’s army and local rescue teams reported that over 70 people were killed when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a drone strike on a mosque in el-Fasher on Friday.
The RSF has maintained a siege on el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, since the early stages of the conflict.
In a statement, the Sudanese army’s Sixth Infantry Division condemned the drone strike on worshippers at Al-Safiya Mosque during Friday prayers, saying it resulted in the deaths of more than 75 civilians, including displaced persons.
Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum, said the drone strike marked one of the bloodiest days in el-Fasher since the RSF began its siege in May last year.
She added that el-Fasher remains the last major army stronghold in the region, and RSF forces have been targeting military positions with drone and artillery attacks, which have also hit civilian sites like hospitals and schools.
The Abu Shouk Emergency Response Room reported that bodies were pulled from the mosque’s rubble, while residents searched the wreckage to recover and bury the dead.
The Resistance Committees in el-Fasher posted a video showing the mosque reduced to rubble and bodies scattered among the debris.
The Sudan Doctors’ Network condemned the attack as a “heinous crime” against unarmed civilians, accusing the RSF of violating humanitarian and religious principles and international law.
This attack is part of the ongoing civil war between the Sudanese army and RSF, now entering its third year.
A report released Friday by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) stated that civilian deaths and ethnic violence have surged as the war passed its two-year mark in early 2025.
The report said 3,384 civilians died in the first half of 2025, accounting for 80% of all civilian deaths in 2024.
OHCHR chief Volker Turk said Sudan’s war is being overlooked and called for international attention to the atrocities being committed.
The report highlighted persistent patterns of sexual violence, indiscriminate attacks, and retaliatory violence against civilians, especially along ethnic lines.
It also noted new trends, including drone strikes on civilian areas in northern and eastern Sudan, regions previously spared from conflict.
Turk warned that the growing ethnic dimension of the war threatens long-term stability and social cohesion in Sudan.
He stressed that without urgent protection for civilians and unrestricted humanitarian aid, more lives will be lost.
Since April 2023, Sudan’s war has killed tens of thousands and displaced around 12 million people. The UN has called it one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, with famine affecting parts of Darfur and southern Sudan.
The conflict has effectively divided the country, with the army controlling the north, east, and center, while the RSF holds much of the south and nearly all of western Darfur.
Attempts by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates to broker a ceasefire have so far failed.
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