At Least 11 Sudanese Killed in Drone Strike on Displacement Camp

A soldier extinguishes a fire following a drone strike in Ad-Damar, Sudan, April 25, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
A soldier extinguishes a fire following a drone strike in Ad-Damar, Sudan, April 25, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
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At Least 11 Sudanese Killed in Drone Strike on Displacement Camp

A soldier extinguishes a fire following a drone strike in Ad-Damar, Sudan, April 25, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
A soldier extinguishes a fire following a drone strike in Ad-Damar, Sudan, April 25, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

At least 11 people were killed after a drone strike by the Rapid Support Forces hit a displacement camp in Sudan's River Nile state, the governor said in a statement, in an attack that also took out the regional power station for the fourth time.
The RSF, which denies carrying out drone attacks and did not respond to a request for comment, has targeted power stations in army-controlled locations in central and northern Sudan for the past several months, but the strikes had not previously left major death tolls, said Reuters.
"This morning we heard a large explosion and we found two families that had been burnt completely inside their tents, while they were sleeping," said teacher Mashair Hemeidan as she shed tears.
"We had left Khartoum fearful of the war and now the war has followed us here. I don't know where I will go with my family and children, we have no shelter or place to go to," she added.
The escalation of such strikes, which have hampered the country's electrical grid and plunged millions into weeks-long blackouts, comes two years into a damaging war as the army has been pushing the paramilitary force out of central Sudan.
Ground fighting in the war is now focused in the Darfur region, where the RSF is fighting to seize the army's remaining foothold, driving hundreds of thousands from their homes. There has also been fighting in western Omdurman, part of the capital where the RSF remains present.
The Friday morning attack by multiple missiles, which set some of the tents on fire, injured 23 other people, a medical official said. Reuters witnesses saw at least nine children among the injured.
"My nine-year-old son Ahmed was killed today, and now my nine-year-old Fadi and my seven-year-old Omnia are in the hospital," said Fadwa Adlan, a resident of the camp.
Some 179 families displaced by the fighting in the capital had been living in difficult conditions in an abandoned building and surrounding tents outside the town of al-Damer, receiving little in the way of humanitarian assistance. The camp was located about three kilometers (1.9 miles) from the Atbara power station which was also struck.
On Friday, authorities could be seen hosing down the residents' belongings destroyed in the fire and breaking down the camp. Residents were seen boarding buses to an unknown location.



Medical Charity Condemns Israel's Use of Hunger as 'Weapon of War' in Gaza

A Palestinian boy at a garbage dump in central Gaza City, 12 May 2025. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
A Palestinian boy at a garbage dump in central Gaza City, 12 May 2025. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
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Medical Charity Condemns Israel's Use of Hunger as 'Weapon of War' in Gaza

A Palestinian boy at a garbage dump in central Gaza City, 12 May 2025. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
A Palestinian boy at a garbage dump in central Gaza City, 12 May 2025. EPA/MOHAMMED SABER

A months-long Israeli blockade is worsening acute malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, medical charity Medecins du Monde warned on Tuesday, accusing Israel of using hunger as "a weapon of war".

Israel halted all aid from entering the war-ravaged Palestinian territory on March 2, days before resuming its offensive triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

The United Nations and aid agencies have repeatedly warned of a growing humanitarian catastrophe for the roughly 2.4 million people in Gaza, amid dwindling supplies of everything from fuel and medicine to food and clean water.

Aid reaches Gaza mainly through Israeli-controlled entry points, though the flow has fluctuated -- even before the March shutdown.

After more than a year and a half of war, acute malnutrition in Gaza has "reached levels comparable to those seen in countries facing prolonged humanitarian crises spanning several decades," AFP quoted Medecins du Monde as saying.

MDM said data from six health centers it runs in the Palestinian territory highlighted "the human responsibility for hunger in Gaza".

"Acute malnutrition rates among pregnant and breastfeeding women and children depend on the Israeli authorities' decisions to allow or block humanitarian aid," it said.

The medical charity said the peaks in acute malnutrition it observed in 2024 "coincided with the sharpest decline in the monthly number of trucks delivering aid to Gaza".

MDM said it saw a peak in child acute malnutrition of 17 percent in November, during a significant reduction of humanitarian aid.

Aid access is limited to Israeli-controlled crossings, with the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt closed since the Israeli army took control of the city in spring 2024.

Israeli authorities have closed the crossing points since March 2, saying they want to force Hamas to release hostages.

The security cabinet in early May approved the "possibility of humanitarian distribution, if necessary" in Gaza, but insisted there was "currently enough food".

The UN's World Food Program in late April said it had depleted all its food stocks in the territory.

"We are not witnessing a humanitarian crisis but a crisis of humanity and moral bankruptcy with the use of hunger as a weapon of war," said Jean-Francois Corty, president of MDM.

"The failure of other countries with the power to pressure the Israeli authorities to lift this deadly siege is unacceptable and could be seen as complicity under international law," he added.

In April, one in five pregnant or breastfeeding women and nearly one in four children MDM observed were suffering or were at high risk of acute malnutrition, the charity said.

The MDM report also detailed the domino effect of dwindling food reserves, as well as the destruction of agricultural facilities and sanitation systems, on the malnutrition crisis.

The organization said it could not officially declare famine underway due to a lack of comprehensive data covering the entire Palestinian territory.

The UN- and NGO-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warned Monday that Gaza was at "critical risk of famine", with 22 percent of the population facing an imminent humanitarian "catastrophe".