More than 70 people have been killed following a drone strike on a mosque in Sudan’s Darfur region.
The attack, which occurred on Friday in the city of El-Fasher, has been blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). However, the group has not claimed responsibility.
The RSF and the Sudanese army have been locked in a fierce civil war for more than two years, with Darfur remaining one of the worst-hit regions.
The paramilitaries are gaining ground as they fight to seize complete control of el-Fasher – the last army stronghold in Darfur and home to more than 300,000 civilians who have been trapped by the fighting.
One resident gave account that the drone struck during morning prayers, killing dozens of people instantly.
The medical source said 78 died, and about 20 were injured, but the process of extracting the bodies from the rubble of the building was still ongoing.
This week, the RSF launched a renewed offensive on El Fasher, which it has besieged for more than a year. Reports say “this included fierce attacks on Abu Shouk, a camp for displaced people near the city.”
Satellite images suggest RSF units now control much of the camp, according to Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), which monitors wars.
According to the unit, satellite pictures also show that the RSF has entered the headquarters of the Joint Forces, a collective of armed groups allied to the Sudanese army.
The headquarters is located in a former UN compound, considered to be a critical line of defence.
Sudan analysts and activists fear that the paramilitary group will target the civilians still in the city, most of whom belong to ethnic groups they see as its enemies.
On Friday, a United Nations report warned of the “increasing ethnicisation of the conflict,” saying both sides were retaliating against people accused of collaborating with opposing parties.
But, the UN and other international organizations have also documented a systematic RSF policy of ethnic cleansing against non-Arab communities in the territory they conquer.
In a recent report, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders said RSF troops “spoke of plans to ‘clean El Fasher’ of its non-Arab…community.”
The RSF have previously denied such accusations, saying they had nothing to do with “tribal conflicts.”
BBC/Shakirat Sadiq