At least 60 people were killed in a drone strike on a shelter housing displaced civilians in Al-Fashir in western Sudan on Saturday, amid the country’s ongoing and devastating civil war, rights groups said on Saturday.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a three-day surge in fighting has left several civilians dead as drone and artillery strikes, primarily carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), hit the Abu Shouk and Daraja Oula neighbourhoods as well as the Al-Fashir displaced persons camp. 

The UN rights office reported that the drones also struck one of the last functioning hospitals in the region and a nearby mosque where civilians had sought refuge.Al-Fashir, the provincial capital of North Darfur, has been under siege for over a year, trapping an estimated 260,000 civilians. The city has become a flashpoint in the brutal civil war that erupted in 2023 between the RSF and the Sudanese military, news agency AP reported.

Saturday's violence extended beyond air and artillery attacks. The UN said at least seven civilians were summarily executed following RSF ground raids in what appeared to be ethnically motivated killings. Both the RSF and the Sudanese military are currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“Despite repeated calls, including my own, for specific care to be taken to protect civilians, they continue instead to kill, injure, and displace civilians, and to attack civilian objects, including IDP shelters, hospitals and mosques, with total disregard for international law,” said UNHCHR chief Volker Turk.He issued an urgent appeal to UN Member States with direct influence over the warring parties to intervene “to protect civilians and prevent further atrocities” in Al-Fashir and across the wider Darfur region.

The conflict in Darfur has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, leaving more than 40,000 people dead, displacing over 14 million nationwide, and pushing parts of the country, including Darfur, into famine.

UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Denise Brown, who recently visited Tawila near Al-Fashir, described it as “one of the epicentres of what is clearly a humanitarian catastrophe.” She said Tawila is now sheltering nearly 600,000 internally displaced people, most of whom fled the siege in Al-Fashir.

Brown highlighted the dire conditions on the ground, noting that the UN’s humanitarian response plan for Sudan is only 25 percent funded. She recounted meeting a woman who had spent seven days travelling on a donkey with her children, including a severely malnourished baby, to reach safety.

While local groups continue to provide limited assistance inside the besieged city, Brown said the aid is “totally insufficient.” The UN is still negotiating access to deliver humanitarian supplies into Al-Fashir. India Today