The mosque was destroyed in the drone strike [X]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
More than 70 people have been killed following a drone strike on a mosque in Sudan’s Darfur region, a senior medical source has told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Friday’s attack in the city of el-Fasher has been blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), but the group has not taken responsibility.<\/p>\n
The RSF and the army have been engaged in a ferocious civil war for more than two years.<\/p>\n
The paramilitaries are gaining ground as they fight to seize complete control of el-Fasher – the last army stronghold in Darfur and home to more than 300,000 civilians who have been trapped by the fighting.<\/p>\n
One resident told the BBC the drone struck during morning prayers, killing dozens of people instantly.<\/p>\n
The medical source said 78 died and about 20 were injured, but the process of extracting the bodies from the rubble of the building was still ongoing.<\/p>\n
BBC Verify has authenticated footage showing around 30 bodies wrapped in shrouds and blankets next to the mosque, which was located in the west of the city.<\/p>\n
This week the RSF launched a renewed offensive on El Fasher, which it has besieged for more than a year. Reports say this included fierce attacks on Abu Shouk, a camp for displaced people near the city.<\/p>\n
Satellite images suggest RSF units now control much of the camp, according to Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), which monitors wars.<\/p>\n
According to the unit, satellite pictures also show the RSF has entered the headquarters of the Joint Forces, a collective of armed groups allied to the Sudanese army.<\/p>\n
The headquarters is located in a former UN compound, considered to be a critical line of defence.<\/p>\n
The BBC has verified footage showing RSF fighters inside the expansive complex, although it is not clear whether they have seized full control.<\/p>\n
These apparent advances would place el-Fasher’s airport and the army’s division headquarters within direct RSF firing range.<\/p>\n
The HRL says el-Fasher will fall to the RSF unless the Sudanese military receives immediate reinforcements.<\/p>\n
A full RSF capture of the city would cement the group’s control of the western part of the country and reinforce a de facto split, with the army in control of the north and east.<\/p>\n
Sudan analysts and activists fear that the paramilitary group will target the civilians still in the city, most of whom belong to ethnic groups they see as its enemies.<\/p>\n
On Friday, a United Nations report warned of the “increasing ethnicisation of the conflict,” saying both sides were retaliating against people accused of collaborating with opposing parties.<\/p>\n
But the UN and other international organizations have also documented a systematic RSF policy of ethnic cleansing against non-Arab communities in the territory they conquer.<\/p>\n
In a recent report the medical charity Doctors Without Borders said RSF troops “spoke of plans to ‘clean El Fasher’ of its non-Arab…community”.<\/p>\n
The RSF have previously denied such accusations, saying they had nothing to do with “tribal conflicts”.<\/p>\n