Dozens of civilians have been killed inside a mosque in El Fasher after a drone strike on Friday, according to Sudanese medical workers who blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for the attack.
The Sudan Doctors Network reported on X that 43 worshipers, among them children and the elderly, died while performing morning prayers. The group denounced the incident as a “heinous crime” that revealed the RSF’s “blatant disregard for humanitarian and religious values and international law.”
Local activists from the El Fasher Resistance Committees circulated a video that appeared to show the mosque in ruins, with debris and bodies strewn across the site. The video is yet to be verified.
The precise location of the mosque was not disclosed, but residents said the drone strike followed days of intensified assaults as RSF fighters and Sudan’s army clashed across the city.
El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, has been at the center of Sudan’s civil war since April 2023, when tensions between the army and the RSF escalated into nationwide conflict. The World Health Organization estimates more than 40,000 people have been killed, while roughly 12 million have been displaced, many facing famine conditions. El Fasher remains the military’s last foothold in Darfur.
AP reported that intense fighting took place on Thursday in the city’s western and southern districts, where residents told the Darfur Victims Support Organization they heard artillery and saw drones in the skies.
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The Resistance Committees also disclosed that the RSF group targeted civilians sheltering in displacement camps and said residential neighborhoods came under repeated bombardment from heavy artillery earlier in the week.
