Drones attacked Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and two northern cities at dawn on Wednesday August 12, an AFP correspondent and witnesses reported. According to the report, the incident appeared to be a coordinated strike following months of relative calm in the capital.
Sudan has been at war since April 2023 between the Sudanese military, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
Khartoum, recaptured by the army last year, a shift that allowed 2.3 million people to return, has faced drone strikes before but had experienced relative calm for months.
An AFP correspondent in the city reported a drone attack at 5 a.m. (0300 GMT), along with the sound of anti-aircraft missiles fired from the direction of the army’s Wadi Seidna base, just north of Omdurman.
Witnesses in the northern cities of Atbara and El-Damer, both under army control, reported similar explosions and drone sightings. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
A war with devastating human cost
Aid workers estimate more than 200,000 people have been killed across Sudan in what the UN has called a “war of atrocities.” The conflict has also triggered the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
Burhan and Daglo, former allies who fell out in a bitter power struggle, have spent much of the war locked in a stalemate, each unwilling to negotiate while seeking a decisive military advantage.
The RSF consolidated control over the western Darfur region last year and has since pushed to gain territory in southern Kordofan and along the southeastern border with Ethiopia.
The army controls the country’s center, north and east, and last month secured a win in Kordofan by pushing RSF forces off a key highway leading to the capital.
Following that setback, Daglo said he would “unleash” his fighters, forces already accused of war crimes, including genocide, and the RSF has since repeatedly threatened a large-scale retaliatory attack.