KHARTOUM: A paramilitary drone killed five civilians on Saturday when it hit a vehicle in greater Khartoum, a rights group said, the second such attack in the Sudanese capital this week.

Drone attacks by both Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — which have been at war since April 2023 — have intensified across the country in recent months, at times killing dozens of people in a single strike.

Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese legal advocacy group documenting abuses during the conflict, said an RSF drone struck a civilian vehicle on the Jammouiya Triangle road on Saturday morning in southern Omdurman — just across the Nile from Khartoum proper — killing all those on board.

The vehicle was travelling from the Sheikh al-Siddiq area in White Nile state, about 90 kilometres (56 miles) south of Khartoum, the group said.

Last Tuesday, a drone strike hit a hospital in the Jebel Awliya area, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of central Khartoum, a security source and eyewitnesses said.

It was the first such attack on the capital in months, after the area was recaptured by the army a year ago from its paramilitary rivals. Jebel Awliya had been the RSF’s last foothold in Khartoum state before the army’s rapid counteroffensive, which pushed the paramilitary west towards its stronghold in the Darfur region.

The RSF carried out a series of drone strikes on Khartoum last year, largely targeting military sites, power stations and water infrastructure.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2026