International Desk

A drone attack by Sudanese paramilitaries has killed at least 38 people in the western Darfur region, local activists said on Sunday, revising earlier death tolls.

The local resistance committee in North Darfur state capital El-Fasher, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan, said the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) targeted the city centre "with four high-explosive missiles".

The RSF has been battling the regular army since mid-April 2023, with El-Fasher besieged by the paramilitary force since May.

The city has seen fierce clashes as both sides fight to secure a last foothold in the vast Darfur region.

Nearly all of Darfur is now controlled by the RSF, which has also taken over swathes of the southern Kordofan region and central Sudan, while the army holds the north and east.

Both are battling for full control of the war-torn capital Khartoum, 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) east of El-Fasher.

The army-aligned health ministry said another drone attack, on Friday, killed nine people and wounded 20 at the main hospital in El-Fasher, forcing it to halt operations.

A ministry statement said that RSF fighters targeted the Saudi Hospital with four missiles launched by a drone, striking "key locations" in the facility.

In an online post on Saturday, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described continued attacks on healthcare facilities across Sudan as "deplorable".

"We urge for the protection of all patients and health professionals, and for all attacks on and around health facilities to stop," he said on X.

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 11 million, creating what the United Nations calls one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory.

Both the army and the RSF have been accused of indiscriminately targeting civilians and medical facilities, as well as deliberately bombing residential areas.

Sudan's army launched one of its deadliest air strikes last week on a market in North Darfur, killing more than 100 people, according to a pro-democracy lawyers' group.