The death toll from a drone strike blamed on Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) near a camp for displaced people in Blue Nile state has risen to 41, according to a local rights group.
On Friday, the Emergency Lawyers group reported the revised death toll, accusing the RSF of targeting civilians. Local authorities have put the number of fatalities at 32, with another 43 people injured, according to Al Jazeera Arabic. The attack took place also on Friday in the Abu Shandi area, near the Ethiopian border.
The RSF-allied Sudan Founding Alliance (TASIS) has denied responsibility for the attack, instead accusing Egypt of carrying it out. In a statement reported by the Sudan Times on Saturday, coalition spokesman Ahmed Tugud Lisan claimed that an Egyptian drone had been launched from a police facility in Wad al-Mahi with the involvement of Egyptian specialists. The allegations against Egypt have not been independently verified.
The rights organization Shahid Evidence has called for an independent international investigation into the incident, including an examination of the drone’s type, flight path, and launch location. The group said responsibility should be established through physical and digital evidence, as well as witness testimony.
Separately, at least 72 gold miners were killed in an airstrike near Sudan’s border with Egypt on Saturday, according to Emergency Lawyers. The organization accused the Egyptian Air Force of carrying out the attack, but the allegation has not been independently verified. Egypt has not officially commented on the incident. The Sudan Tribune reported that survivors put the death toll at more than 200, although the figure remains unconfirmed.
The attacks come amid an ongoing civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF, which erupted in April 2023. According to UN estimates, 33.7 million people in Sudan need humanitarian assistance, while more than 8.5 million remain internally displaced.
Sudan descended into chaos in April 2023 when fighting erupted between the national army, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The conflict followed months of tension between their commanders, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, over a planned transition to civilian rule. What began in the capital, Khartoum, as a power struggle has devastated the country, killing tens of thousands, displacing millions, and pushing parts of Sudan into famine.
Regional and international peace efforts, including African Union mediation and Saudi-US talks in Jeddah, have repeatedly stalled. In September 2025, the Quad group – the US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates – proposed a three-month humanitarian truce leading to a permanent ceasefire and a civilian-led political transition. Burhan rejected a subsequent US-led proposal that November, arguing it would dismantle state security institutions while leaving the RSF in place. The paramilitaries said they accepted the truce.
The UAE’s involvement has deepened mistrust of mediation. Sudan’s army-backed government severed diplomatic ties with Abu Dhabi in May 2025, accusing it of supporting the RSF. The UAE denies supplying weapons to the paramilitaries. Relations with Washington deteriorated further in September 2026 after the US questioned both factions’ legitimacy. Sudan rejected the remarks and called for peace efforts free from foreign dictates.
Meanwhile, rival administrations have entrenched Sudan’s divisions. Burhan’s government returned to Khartoum in January 2026 after the army recaptured the capital, having operated from Port Sudan during the fighting. In July 2025, the RSF-aligned TASIS coalition announced a rival government based in Nyala, Darfur, with Dagalo heading its governing council. The UN Security Council and African Union rejected the move.
Several RSF commanders have defected to the Sudanese Army since 2024. Most recently, Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Azraq al-Fanjari reportedly switched sides with around 300 fighters and 30 military vehicles on Thursday.
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