Drone strikes killed eight civilians and wounded dozens in Sudan’s Kordofan region, according to a rights group that monitors abuses in the country’s war.
Emergency Lawyers said a drone hit a group of civilians travelling in the desert town of Sowdari in North Kordofan state on Thursday. The group said that when others rushed to help the victims, a second drone struck the scene. The report was carried in a statement posted by the group and summarized in the supplied evidence from AP.
The incident fits a wider pattern in Sudan’s conflict, where drone warfare has become a defining feature of the fighting between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese military. The AP evidence says the war began in April 2023 and has killed at least 59,000 people according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, though aid groups believe the real toll is much higher. The same source says the United Nations has described drone strikes as the leading cause of death in Sudan and says they accounted for 80% of civilian deaths during the first four months of 2026.
Emergency Lawyers said the attack on civilians and the follow-up strike while people were trying to rescue the wounded amounted to a violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime. The group called for an independent investigation into who was responsible. The evidence available for this report does not identify the attacker, and this story does not speculate about attribution.
Sowdari is in North Kordofan, part of a broader conflict zone where civilians have faced repeated attacks, movement restrictions and the collapse of basic protection. The latest strike also highlights how rescue attempts can become part of the danger when combatants use drones against people already exposed in open areas.
The reporting available here does not provide a full casualty breakdown beyond the eight confirmed dead and the mention of dozens wounded. It also does not describe the condition of the injured or the timeline for any formal inquiry. What it does establish is that civilians were hit twice in quick succession, in a state where drone warfare is now central to how the conflict is being fought.
That makes the Sowdari strike more than another wartime incident. It is another sign that Sudan’s civilian death toll is being driven increasingly by aerial attacks, with rescue crews and bystanders often caught in the same blast pattern as the original victims.
