Attacks on mourners and a school leave at least 57 dead as fighting between rival forces intensifies across Sudan

Drone attacks struck mourners on a truck and a school complex in two separate Sudanese states this week, news agencies report quoting medical sources and volunteers.

In the deadlier of the two strikes, at least 40 people died on Tuesday when a pick-up truck carrying mourners to a funeral was hit on the road between the towns of Abu Zabad and El-Fula in West Kordofan state, a medical source at Abu Zabad Hospital told AFP.

"Most of the victims were women," the source told AFP, requesting anonymity for safety reasons.

A group of relatives had been "on their way to El-Fula for a funeral, which is why several members of the same family died", resident Hamad Abdallah said, adding they had all been "buried in the same place".

Attack on school

A second attack on Wednesday on a secondary school and a health care center killed at least 17 people in Shukairi village, near Kosti in White Nile state in central Sudan. The dead were mostly schoolgirls, a hospital official and a medical group said.

At least 10 people were wounded in the strike, according to Dr Musa al-Majeri, director of the Douiem Hospital, the nearest major medical facility to the village.

He blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for the strike, although the group has not yet commented on the incident.

The Kordofan region, home to oil deposits, arable land and the RSF's most powerful paramilitary allies, connects RSF strongholds in the Darfur region to the country's army-controlled east.

Army push back

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.

Fighting between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which began in mid-April 2023, has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions across the country.

Source: Newstimehub