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Thirty-five people were killed in a drone strike by the Sudanese army on a traditional court session in the north of the Darfur region, a local rights organisation has said.<\/p>\n
Dozens more were reported injured in Sunday afternoon’s attack.<\/p>\n
The Emergency Lawyers Group, which monitors violence against civilians, said the attack occurred in Ghara al-Zawiya village that is controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The army has not commented.<\/p>\n
The RSF holds most of Darfur, in the west of the country, as the two sides continue to fight in the three-year-long civil war that has devastated the country, killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions from their homes.<\/p>\n
Sunday’s “court session was being held under a tree with the participation of local community leaders,” a witness is quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.<\/p>\n
Four tribal leaders and two RSF commanders were among those killed in the attack, according to the witness.<\/p>\n
The privately owned Darfur 24 website quoted a local resident who said that two drones flew over the town “before launching more than four missiles”.<\/p>\n
The Emergency Lawyers Group called for an investigation into the drone strike and condemned the targeting of the court saying that attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are a “grave violation of international humanitarian law”.<\/p>\n
It also noted that drones are being increasingly used “to target civilian areas and gatherings, which exacerbates the risks faced by the population”.<\/p>\n
The RSF has also been accused of war crimes including drone attacks on civilians over the past three years.<\/p>\n
The paramilitary group’s siege and attack on el-Fasher, one of Darfur’s main cities, last year bore the “hallmarks of genocide” according to a UN fact-finding mission.<\/p>\n
The RSF has denied the accusations.<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by BBC Monitoring<\/em><\/p>\n