Adel Abdelrheem and Rania Abu Shamala
10 May 2025•Update: 11 May 2025
KHARTOUM, Sudan /ISTANBUL
At least 21 people were killed and 47 others injured in a drone strike by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) targeting the prison in El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state in southern Sudan, the Sudan Doctors Network said on Saturday.
“This deliberate assault on a civilian facility marks a grave escalation in the ongoing violence in the region,” the non-governmental network said in a statement.
The prison houses nearly 5,000 inmates, it added.
Meanwhile, government spokesperson Information Minister Khalid Al-Aiser said: “What happened at El-Obeid prison is a full-fledged war crime, adding to the long record of violations committed by the militia and its backers against Sudanese civilians.”
The incident came amid ongoing drone attacks on Port Sudan, the country’s temporary administrative capital in the east, for the seventh consecutive day.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that drones attacked Port Sudan at dawn on Saturday and were met with anti-aircraft fire.
The attack followed a similar drone strike on Friday, marking the seventh day of such assaults, which were also repelled by Sudanese army air defenses.
Since Sunday, Port Sudan, the country’s temporary capital, has been under repeated drone strikes targeting both civilian and military sites, triggering fires at oil depots and a power station.
On Tuesday, Sudanese authorities accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of being behind the drone strikes on fuel depots at the southern port, the Port Sudan Airport, and a local power facility. The RSF has not commented on the allegations.
Since April 2023, the RSF has been battling the army for control of Sudan, resulting in thousands of deaths and creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
More than 20,000 people have been killed and 15 million displaced, according to the UN and local authorities. Research from US scholars, however, puts the death toll at around 130,000.
