At least 40 people were killed and dozens injured in an attack that targeted a funeral gathering in the city of el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan State in central Sudan, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced Wednesday.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted OCHA as saying in a statement that “forty civilians were killed and dozens injured on Tuesday in an attack targeting a funeral gathering in el-Obeid,” noting that violence has continued in the Darfur region in recent days, including airstrikes and drone activity.

For weeks, el-Obeid has been under a siege imposed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), while fighting has intensified in the Kordofan region, a strategic area linking Khartoum to Darfur in western Sudan.

The attack comes amid rising security tensions in Sudan, following the RSF’s takeover of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, on October 26, after a year-long siege. Syrian Arab News Agency