Description: The Sudanese RSF have intensified drone attacks targeting the besieged city of El – Fasher in the North Darfur province, killing more than 15 people. The attack follows RSF’s deadly pattern of targeting civilians, after last week’s drone attack on a mosque also in El – Fasher, which resulted in the deaths of more than 70 people. The North Darfur province has become the flashpoint for Sudan’s civil war, where the RSF have besieged several humanitarian camps and intensified the ground and aerial offensive on Sudan’s Armed Forces (SAF) in recent months. Camps such as the Abu Shouk refugee camp and the Zamzam refugee shelter have been constant targets for the RSF aiming to pressure the SAF into withdrawing from the region. Sudan is also facing a massive outbreak of cholera with medical facilities heavily overwhelmed and in no condition to treat large numbers of civilians.
Impact: The civil war in Sudan is entering an even deadlier and dehumanizing phase, with the RSF evidently backed by foreign forces, intensifying drone attacks in order to achieve battleground supremacy over the SAF. Civilian casualties are mounting by the day, with the health crisis only further overwhelming refugee camps and medical facilities. The intensified usage of drones by the RSF could give the organization advantageous position in the war, potentially tilting the outcome in their favor as the RSF and the SAF have been deadlocked in the civil war for over two years with neither side possessing the capacities to militarily prevail over the other. The growing political and military crisis in South Sudan and the potential for the neighboring country to plunge into another civil war, could morph the crises causing devastating consequences in the region with mass civilian casualties exacerbating the humanitarian, health and security situation even further.