For over three years now, Sudan has been gripped by an ongoing conflict which started mid-April 2023 between the Forces of the Founding Alliance of Sudan, “Tasis,” and the army affiliated with the Port Sudan authorities, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands and the displacement of nearly 14 million others.
Amid developments on the ground, Darfur24 reported that the cities of El Fasher and Kabkabiya in North Darfur came under drone strikes, amid reports of deaths and injuries and damage to a number of homes and public facilities. It quoted local sources as saying that “drones believed to be operated by the Sudanese army targeted several sites in El Fasher, marking the second consecutive week of bombardment.”
The strikes came days after a similar army raid targeted a gathering of displaced civilians in the southern Badia area of Blue Nile State, killing and wounding dozens, according to preliminary information, most of them women and children.
The victims had fled the ongoing fighting, which has displaced thousands of civilians from their areas, scattering them and depriving them of shelter, grazing lands and sources of livelihood, amid an almost complete absence of humanitarian assistance and emergency relief, according to the Emergency Lawyers Group.
The group condemned the attack in the strongest terms, stressing that targeting civilians and displaced people, who enjoy special protection under international humanitarian law, constitutes a grave violation of the rules governing the protection of civilians and may amount to a war crime if it is established that the attack was deliberately directed against civilians or carried out indiscriminately and without distinction.
“This attack comes amid escalating violations against civilians in Sudan and the continued targeting of populated areas and displacement sites, reflecting the failure of the parties to the conflict to fulfill their legal obligations to protect civilians and keep them out of hostilities,” the statement said.
European-African Moves
Meanwhile, the African-European Organization for Humanitarian Action and Development (OAAHD) accused the Sudanese Armed Forces’ air force of carrying out repeated airstrikes on populated areas and civilian facilities in several Sudanese states, considering the pattern of these attacks a serious cause for concern over potential violations of international humanitarian law.
The accusation came in a statement issued on July 29, 2026, which said the attacks had targeted residential areas, service facilities, humanitarian infrastructure, bridges and supply routes, stressing that their recurrence and broad geographic scope warranted urgent international action to investigate and ensure accountability.
The organization said aircraft belonging to the Sudanese Air Force carried out strikes on July 29 against the village of Sharshar in North Kordofan, which it said, according to preliminary information and photographs it had obtained, resulted in the deaths and injuries of a number of civilians, including women and children. It added that the Um Qirfa area of North Kordofan was subjected to an airstrike on July 18, noting that it had received reports of the appearance of smoke or yellow clouds following one of the strikes, accompanied by cases of suffocation and unusual health symptoms.
The organization stressed that it currently has no independent forensic evidence confirming the nature of the substances referred to, but called for an independent scientific investigation involving the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), including the collection and analysis of environmental and medical samples to verify the allegations.
It also spoke of the targeting of the Ardamata Bridge in West Darfur on June 9, 2026, saying that “the destruction of the bridge disrupted one of the vital crossing routes during the rainy season, affecting the access of thousands of families and displaced people, as well as humanitarian convoys, to food, medicine and essential services.”
The organization said these incidents should not be viewed as isolated events, but rather as “part of a recurring pattern of airstrikes targeting populated areas, markets, roads, bridges and civilian facilities,” calling for a “comprehensive investigation into the strikes on Sharshar and Um Qirfa, alongside an investigation into the targeting of Ardamata Bridge and an assessment of the resulting humanitarian and legal consequences.”
Bombing of Civilian Facilities
The army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and allied militias, has been accused of bombing civilian facilities, particularly hospitals and markets, an act that international organizations have described as a fully-fledged war crime.
On April 17, 2023, the third day of the outbreak of the Sudanese war, army warplanes bombed Khartoum Government Hospital near the army’s General Command in the center of the capital, establishing a pattern that the army has resorted to from time to time.
More than 62 people were killed and 113 others wounded in a drone strike carried out by the army against Al-Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur, western Sudan, according to statements issued by local and United Nations entities late last March.
The head of the civil administration in East Darfur, Mohammed Idris Khater, said the bombardment targeted the emergency department with two projectiles fired from a drone belonging to the Sudanese army, killing more than 60 people, wounding more than 90 others and completely destroying the building. He added that the majority of the victims were children and women.
He noted that the hospital is the main healthcare facility in the state, describing the attack as a “direct targeting of a vital civilian institution.”
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan (OCHA) expressed shock over the attack, saying in a press statement: “We are shocked by yesterday’s attack on a hospital in East Darfur, which killed dozens of people, including children, and injured others,” stressing that “such attacks are unacceptable” and underscoring the need to protect civilians and healthcare workers.
Additional reporting by Agencies
