A drone strike on a displaced persons camp in Sudan's Blue Nile province killed at least 40 people Friday, according to Emergency Lawyers, a rights organization monitoring the civil war.
The attack occurred in the Abu Shandi area near Sudan's border with Ethiopia. Among those killed were eight children and multiple women, Emergency Lawyers reported. Dozens more were injured in the strike.
The Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary organization engaged in Sudan's ongoing civil war, was blamed for the attack. The RSF has fought against Sudan's regular army, the Sudanese Armed Forces, since the conflict began in April 2023.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs expressed shock at the attack. Denise Brown, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, called for accountability for those responsible.
Sudan's civil war erupted in April 2023 after leaders of both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces jointly carried out a coup, then disagreed over power-sharing arrangements. The conflict has since become the world's largest humanitarian crisis, according to UN assessments.
At least 150,000 people have been killed in the war to date, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, though humanitarian organizations warn the actual death toll may be significantly higher. Both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces have been accused of committing war crimes, though the RSF is regarded as the more violent of the two. Assessments cited by sources indicate the RSF's violence has characteristics of genocide.