Three aid workers killed, 4 injured in RSF drone strike in Sudan’s Kordofan. Sudan war news

The attack comes as the UN released a report that found the RSF’s actions in al-Fashar bore the hallmarks of genocide.

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At least three aid workers were killed and four others wounded in a drone attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) on an aid convoy in Sudan’s South Kordofan state, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, in the latest massacre against civilians caught in the country’s brutal civil war.

The convoy of trucks carrying food and humanitarian supplies was targeted by the RSF and its ally, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, while travelling through the Kartala region on Thursday en route to the cities of Kadugli and Dilling.

“The Network strongly condemns the deliberate targeting of humanitarian convoys and calls it a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and all norms prohibiting attacks on humanitarian workers,” Sudan Doctors Network wrote in a social media post.

The network said the attack was “the second such incident in less than a month following the shelling of a UN aid convoy in the town of al-Rahad,” adding, “This dangerous escalation jeopardises the security of humanitarian operations and further exacerbates civilian suffering.”

The Sudan Doctors Network reiterated its call for “the international community, the United Nations and human rights organisations to put immediate and effective pressure on the leadership of the Rapid Support Force to ensure the safety of aid convoys and their workers, to open safe and sustainable humanitarian corridors, and to hold accountable those responsible for targeted assistance”.

Al Jazeera could not independently confirm the latest RSF attack, which came a month after the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) announced it had broken a nearly two-year RSF siege on Dilling.

Dilling is located between the besieged state capital of Kadugli and El-Obeid, the capital of the neighbouring North Kordofan province, which the RSF has tried to encircle.

The RSF and SAF have been waging a brutal civil war for control of Sudan since April 2023, in which thousands have been killed and millions displaced.

After being driven out of the capital, Khartoum, in March, the RSF has focused on the Kordofan region and the town of al-Fashar in North Darfur state, which was the army’s last stronghold in the vast Darfur region until it was captured by the RSF in October.

There were reports of mass killings, rape, kidnappings and looting by paramilitaries following the takeover of al-Fashar, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched a formal investigation into “war crimes” by both sides.

On Wednesday, the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission to Sudan determined that the RSF carried out “a coordinated campaign of destruction” against non-Arab communities in and around al-Fashar during its 18-month siege of the city, the characteristics of which amounted to genocide.

The fact-finding mission, which was mandated by members of the UN Human Rights Council, said that the RSF had committed at least three of the five criteria for genocide.

According to the report, they included killing members of protected ethnic groups (in this case, the Zaghawa and Fur communities), causing serious physical and mental harm, and deliberately creating living conditions designed to bring about the physical destruction of the group in whole or in part.

Following the release of the report, the United States announced sanctions on RSF Brigadier-General Elfateh Abdullah Idris Adam, Major-General Gedo Hamdan Ahmed Mohammed and Field Commander Tijani Ibrahim Moussa Mohammed for their role in the “horrific campaign” of the siege and capture of El-Fashar.