Sudan paramilitary RSF launches coordinated drone strikes on multiple cities
Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a wave of drone attacks on the capital, Khartoum, and several other cities under the control of the Sudanese Armed Forces early on Wednesday, August 12, 2026. The coordinated strikes appeared to be the group's largest such operation in months.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a conflict between the regular army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. The capital, which was recaptured by the army last year, had experienced a period of relative calm for several months before Wednesday's attacks.
An army source said the RSF targeted Khartoum, the Kordofan city of El-Obeid, and the northern cities of Atbara and El-Damer "with a large number of drones, which our anti-aircraft defences engaged with." In a statement on social media, RSF spokesman Al-Fatih Qurashi confirmed that his forces had attacked the airport and army warehouses in Atbara, fuel depots in Omdurman, and a military airport in the far south.
An AFP correspondent in Khartoum reported a drone attack at 5 a.m. (0300 GMT), along with the sound of anti-aircraft missiles from the direction of the army's Wadi Seidna base, just north of Omdurman. In Khartoum North, also known as Bahri, two drones struck a mosque and an electricity transformer in the El-Droshab area, according to an eyewitness. It was not immediately clear if they had been shot down by air defences. Witnesses in the northern cities of Atbara and El-Damer, both army-controlled, reported hearing explosions and seeing drones in the sky. In Tamboul, about 120 kilometres southeast of the capital, civilians were described as being in a "state of fear" after drones appeared overhead. Two eyewitnesses in Sifeiya, around 90 kilometres from the border with South Sudan, reported a drone attack on the local airport, which the army uses as an airbase.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attacks, which took place hundreds of kilometres apart. Sudan's war has killed more than 200,000 people, according to aid workers, and has generated the world's largest hunger and displacement crises. The United Nations has called the conflict a "war of atrocities."
Wednesday's drone attacks came about a month after the army gained ground in the Kordofan region, pushing the RSF off a key highway that connects Khartoum to El-Obeid, the region's largest city. The RSF had tried to seize the highway for months. In a separate development on the same day, the rights group Emergency Lawyers, which documents abuses by both sides, reported an apparent retaliatory army attack on civilians near the town of Jabret al-Sheikh in North Kordofan. At least five civilians were killed and ten injured in the attack, the group said. The army and its allied militias have repeatedly been accused of attacking civilians in areas they have recently recaptured.
Daglo, who has said he would "unleash" his fighters — already accused of war crimes including genocide — has threatened a large-scale retaliation. Al-Burhan and Daglo, allies until a bitter power struggle split them, have spent most of the war in a military stalemate, with neither side willing to enter negotiations. The RSF solidified its hold on the western region of Darfur last year and has since sought to expand into Kordofan and along the southeastern border with Ethiopia. The army, which holds the country's centre, north and east, has tried to project an image of recovery in areas it controls. In Khartoum, 2.3 million people have returned from displacement, only to find large amounts of uncleared war remnants, dilapidated infrastructure, and limited electricity and water.
