A drone strike on a crowded market in Sudan’s North Darfur killed 10 people over the weekend, first responders said, as fighting intensified across the country and aid agencies pulled staff from a besieged, famine-hit city in the south.
The North Darfur Emergency Rooms Council, a volunteer network coordinating relief, said a drone hit Al-Harra market in the Rapid Support Forces-controlled town of Malha, igniting fires in shops and causing extensive damage. The council did not identify who carried out the strike. There was no immediate comment from either Sudan’s army or the RSF.
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The reported attack came as clashes escalated in South Kordofan, now a focal point of the 20-month war. In Kadugli, the state capital, a drone strike last week killed eight people as they attempted to flee the army-held city, according to local reports. On Sunday, humanitarian groups evacuated all their workers from Kadugli due to deteriorating security, a source with an aid organization operating there said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The source said the move followed the United Nations’ decision to relocate its logistics hub from the city; they did not disclose the workers’ destination.
Kadugli and nearby Dilling have been under RSF siege since the conflict erupted in April 2023 between Sudan’s army and the powerful paramilitary. Last week, the RSF said it had seized the Brno area, a key defensive position on the route between the two cities. After ousting army forces in October from El-Fasher, the last army stronghold in Darfur, the RSF and allied groups shifted their campaign toward resource-rich Kordofan, a strategic crossroads linking army-held north and east with RSF-held western territories.
The war has effectively split Sudan, with the army controlling the north, east and central regions, while the RSF dominates all five Darfur state capitals and parts of the south. Communications in Kordofan have been cut, complicating efforts to confirm battlefield developments and deliver aid. The United Nations declared a famine in Kadugli last month, and the International Organization for Migration estimates more than 50,000 civilians fled the region since the end of October.
Across Sudan, the conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced nearly 12 million people and created what U.N. agencies describe as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis. In some areas, residents have resorted to foraging for food in forests as supply routes collapse and prices soar.
Health conditions are worsening, particularly in Darfur. Doctors Without Borders said a preventable measles outbreak is spreading in Central, South and West Darfur. Since September 2025, MSF teams have treated more than 1,300 cases, the organization said, warning that delays in vaccine transport, approvals and coordination by authorities and key partners are leaving children unprotected.
Ethnic tensions are also deepening. Kordofan, like Darfur, is home to a mix of Sudanese and non-Sudanese Arab communities, and rights monitors have reported ethnically targeted violence following the RSF’s gains after El-Fasher fell. With communications down and access restricted, independent assessments remain limited.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Malha drone strike. Both the army and RSF have increased use of long-range and aerial attacks throughout the war, which has devastated markets, hospitals and civilian infrastructure. The North Darfur Emergency Rooms Council said Sunday’s blast set off fires that swept through stalls in Al-Harra market, but it did not provide details on the victims.
As aid organizations pull back from Kadugli and front lines shift, relief workers warn that gaps in services—from food distribution to routine vaccinations—could compound already catastrophic conditions. With no cease-fire in sight and major arteries contested or cut, the humanitarian response remains precarious and uneven across Sudan’s fractured landscape.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
