Khartoum airport chief: Drone attacks did not disrupt flights

A rare drone strike in Sudan's capital Khartoum claimed the lives of three young children on Monday, according to a rights organization. The victims were two, four, and six-year-old children who were killed in Imtidad Nasser, a neighborhood east of the city's airport. The attack was blamed on Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been engaged in a three-year conflict with the Sudanese military.

Eyewitness Sayed Mustafa reported seeing the drone approach the airport and hearing anti-aircraft fire engage it before the drone crashed and an explosion was heard nearby.

The RSF and Sudanese military have been escalating airstrikes, resulting in the deaths of dozens of civilians in the Kordofan region over the past few days. Emergency Lawyers, a group tracking civilian violence in Sudan's war, denounced the Khartoum attack, describing it as a humanitarian tragedy and a "serious violation" that demands investigation and accountability.

The RSF's weekend attack on West Kordofan province involved drone strikes on markets in al-Muglad, killing numerous civilians, including women and children. The Sudanese military also carried out drone strikes on the Al-Dabab area of West Kordofan on Sunday, killing additional civilians. Both incidents were condemned as violations of international humanitarian law by Emergency Lawyers.

The Sudanese conflict began in April 2023 following tensions between the military and the RSF. According to conflict monitoring group ACLED, the war has resulted in at least 59,000 deaths, though aid organizations estimate the death toll to be much higher. Approximately 13 million people have been displaced from their homes, constituting the world's largest humanitarian crisis according to U.N. figures.

About 33.7 million people, including 17.3 million children, urgently require aid in Sudan. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has warned that conflict and drought are exacerbating food insecurity in Darfur and Kordofan, with two displacement camps recording malnutrition levels above famine thresholds. The United States recently called for a humanitarian truce and an expanded arms embargo on Sudan in the U.N. Security Council, but China and Russia opposed expanding the embargo.