Drone strike on funeral procession in Sudan kills at least four

Sat Jun 13 2026 13:00:14 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

A drone attack on a funeral procession in El-Obeid left four dead and wounded, raising questions about the escalating violence in Sudan’s civil war.

A suicide drone launched from a military base struck a funeral procession in El-Obeid, killing four people and injuring several others. The Rapid Support Forces are accused of the attack by local rights groups Sudan Doctors Network and Emergency Lawyers. This follows a series of drone strikes that have already killed more than 20 people. The city, a key battleground between army and RSF forces, is already experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis, with millions displaced and millions hungry.

A drone strike on a funeral procession in the Sudanese city of El-Obeid has killed at least four people and injured several others, a report says.

Both Sudan Doctors Network and Emergency Lawyers blame the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for the attack, stating that the drone was launched from an army base and hit a crush of mourners gathering at a cemetery. The groups say the incident is part of a broader series of strikes that started on Wednesday, which has already claimed more than 20 lives.

The RSF has not issued a statement on the incident.

El-Obeid, currently controlled by the army, sits at the crossroads of the conflict in Sudan’s three‑year civil war that erupted after a split between army leadership and the RSF over the country’s future direction. The city lies in the oil‑rich western Kordofan region and is strategically important because it is contiguous to RSF‑held areas to the west and army‑held areas to the east. Control of the city would effectively secure large portions of Sudan’s oil supply and a piece of the country’s economic lifeblood.

The fighting has generated the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with over 11 million people displaced and 28 million people struggling with acute hunger. The recent drone campaign shows a pattern of repeated attacks on civilians in El-Obeid over consecutive days, according to the two human‑rights groups.

The groups also report that the drones struck residential neighbourhoods, the airport district and areas surrounding an army base, killing thirteen civilians. They added that five additional civilians died in earlier attacks and that a truck driver transporting food supplies was killed when his vehicle was struck on Thursday.

One resident of the area said that roofs collapsed over occupants, giving the impression that no-one could survive. The image just released by the BBC shows a crater in a sand field at a military ceremony where a makeshift sign on a downed drone instructs “do not touch.”