Sudan Drone Strike Kills Dozens at Blue Nile Shelter, UN Says

A sudan drone strike hit the area around a displacement shelter in Wad Al Mahi, in Sudan's Blue Nile State, this week, killing at least 31 civilians. The United Nations said most of the dead were women and children, and dozens more were injured, some seriously, with the death toll expected to rise. The sudan drone strike is the latest attack on people sheltering from a civil war that has displaced millions.

The UN's humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Denise Brown, said in a statement dated October 10 that the site held people who had fled recent fighting in the Geissan and Kurmuk localities. The area is under the control of the Sudanese Armed Forces and had already come under attack in the past week, according to the statement. The rights group Emergency Lawyers, which tracks the war, blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for the sudan drone strike, the Associated Press reported. The group put the death toll at 41, including eight children and many women, while the UN's preliminary figure was at least 31. The RSF had not publicly responded to the accusation.

The strike fits a widening pattern

The UN noted that a similar sudan drone strike had hit a displacement shelter in El Obeid, North Kordofan State, a week earlier, killing and injuring civilians, including children. Areas of Blue Nile State have been under continuous attack in recent weeks, displacing thousands of people and exposing many more to harm, according to the UN. Aid agencies say displaced families sheltering in informal camps are increasingly exposed to strikes and explosive remnants of war, adding to a displacement crisis that has already forced millions of people from their homes across Sudan.

The UN office condemned the killings and called for those responsible to be held accountable, saying the attack showed a flagrant disregard for international humanitarian law.

Blue Nile has not been spared earlier in the war. A drone attack hit a World Food Programme-linked facility in Yabus, in the same state, earlier this year, and other strikes have hit vehicles carrying displaced families and UN aid trucks. The sudan drone strike on Wad Al Mahi continues that pattern: attacks on the routes and shelters civilians rely on. With each new sudan drone strike, aid agencies say, the space for civilians to flee to safety keeps shrinking, and the latest sudan drone strike showed that even a displacement site offers no guarantee of protection.

A war now defined by drones

The sudan drone strike toll keeps growing beyond individual attacks. The UN said drone attacks in Sudan killed more than eleven hundred civilians between January and June of this year, a figure that does not include the latest strikes in Blue Nile and North Kordofan. Rights groups warn that both sides now treat armed drones as a routine tool of the war.

Sudan's war began in April 2023, when the RSF launched an insurgency against the government, and the fighting has since spread across much of the country. Conflict monitor ACLED counts at least one hundred fifty thousand deaths, though aid groups believe the real figure is higher. Drones have become a defining weapon of the conflict. The BBC has reported that both the army and the RSF have been accused of using them, so civilians face danger from more than one direction.

Earlier this week, Sudan's military leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, pledged to continue the military offensive until the army had regained control of the entire country, the Sudan News Agency reported, ruling out negotiations with the RSF. The pledge came as fighting continued to spread beyond its original front lines. For the families who fled Geissan and Kurmuk for a shelter in Wad Al Mahi, the latest attack showed that even displacement offers no safety.

GenZ NewZ has also covered the one-year anniversary of the Gaza ceasefire and reports of shipping strikes near the Strait of Hormuz, where attribution also remains contested. The UN statement on the Blue Nile attack is available in full on ReliefWeb, and further reporting on the strike appears in the African press.