Red Cross Concerned by Drone Attacks on Critical Infrastructure in Sudan

People collect food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organization to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
People collect food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organization to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
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Red Cross Concerned by Drone Attacks on Critical Infrastructure in Sudan

People collect food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organization to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
People collect food at a location set up by a local humanitarian organization to donate meals and medication to people displaced by the war in Sudan, in Meroe in the country's Northern State, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

The Red Cross raised alarm on Thursday at the growing use of drone attacks by warring parties on hospitals, electricity and water infrastructure in Sudan, which it said was contributing to widespread human rights violations.

Some 70-80% of hospitals in Sudan were not running and there were concerns cholera could surge due to damage caused by the war to water infrastructure, the International Committee of the Red Cross told reporters in Geneva.

"A recent drone attack stopped all the electricity provision in an area close to Khartoum, which means critical infrastructure is being damaged," said Patrick Youssef, the Red Cross's Regional Director for Africa, in a new report.

"There is a clear increased use of these technologies, drones - to be in the hands of everyone - which increases the impact on the local population and the intensity of attacks," Youssef said.

After two years of fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, some people are returning to Khartoum after they were forced to flee when war broke out on April 15, 2023 amidst a ongoing power struggle between the army and the RSF ahead of a transition to civilian rule.

Some 12 million people have been displaced by the conflict since 2023.

"We have seen violations of the law left, right and center,” Youssef said, urging the warring parties to allow the Red Cross access so it can offer humanitarian support and document atrocities.

In March, aid groups told Reuters that the RSF had placed new constraints on aid deliveries to territories where it was seeking to cement its control. Aid groups have also accused the army of denying or hindering access to RSF-controlled areas.

Both sides in the conflict deny impeding aid.



UN: Israel's War Plans Threaten 'Continued Existence' of Palestinians in Gaza

Palestinians inspect the damage at a school used as a shelter by displaced residents that was hit twice by Israeli army strikes on Tuesday, killing more than 25 people, in Bureij, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 7, 2025.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians inspect the damage at a school used as a shelter by displaced residents that was hit twice by Israeli army strikes on Tuesday, killing more than 25 people, in Bureij, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 7, 2025.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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UN: Israel's War Plans Threaten 'Continued Existence' of Palestinians in Gaza

Palestinians inspect the damage at a school used as a shelter by displaced residents that was hit twice by Israeli army strikes on Tuesday, killing more than 25 people, in Bureij, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 7, 2025.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians inspect the damage at a school used as a shelter by displaced residents that was hit twice by Israeli army strikes on Tuesday, killing more than 25 people, in Bureij, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 7, 2025.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The UN rights chief voiced deepened concerns Wednesday that Israel's plans to expand its offensive in Gaza aim to create conditions threatening Palestinians' "continued existence" in the territory.

Israel's military has called up tens of thousands of reservists for an expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip, which an official said would entail the "conquest" of the Palestinian territory.

"Israel's reported plans to forcibly transfer Gaza's population to a small area in the south of the Strip and threats by Israeli officials to deport Palestinians outside of Gaza further aggravate concerns that Israel's actions are aimed at inflicting on Palestinians conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence in Gaza as a group," Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.

"There is no reason to believe that doubling down on military strategies, which, for a year and eight months, have not led to a durable resolution, including the release of all hostages, will now succeed," he said.

"Instead, expanding the offensive on Gaza will almost certainly cause further mass displacement, more deaths and injuries of innocent civilians, and the destruction of Gaza's little remaining infrastructure."

Nearly all of the Palestinian territory's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during the war, sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

A more than two-month Israeli blockade on all aid into Gaza has worsened the humanitarian crisis.

According to AFP, Turk warned that stepping up the Israeli offensive "would only compound the misery and suffering inflicted by the complete blockade on the entry of basic goods for almost nine weeks now".

"Gaza's residents have already been deprived of all lifesaving necessities, particularly food, with relentless Israeli attacks on community kitchens and those trying to maintain a minimum of law and order," he said.

"Any use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of war constitutes a war crime," Turk said, adding that "the only lasting solution to this crisis lies through full compliance with international law".

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 2,507 people had been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in mid-March, bringing the overall death toll from the war to 52,615.