A drone strike on Wednesday in the village of Shukeiri in Sudan’s White Nile State killed at least 17 people, including students and medical staff, according to a statement from the Sudanese Doctors Network. The organization attributed the attack, which struck a secondary school and a health center, to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Musa Al-Majri, the director of al-Duwaim Hospital, the nearest major medical facility, reported that the strike also wounded 10 individuals. The incident is part of the ongoing conflict between the RSF and the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) that began in April 2023.
In a statement following the attack, the Sudanese Doctors Network said, “This horrific crime represents a continuation of the violations committed by the RSF in White Nile State.” The group stated that several civilian facilities had been targeted in the preceding days, describing it as “an escalation that reflects a continued pattern of targeting civilians without regard for international humanitarian law.”
The conflict, now approaching its third year, has seen fighting expand across multiple regions of the country. After the SAF secured control of the capital, Khartoum, in March 2025, RSF military campaigns intensified in other areas, including the Kordofan and Darfur regions. In October 2025, the RSF took control of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, which had been the last major SAF-held city in the wider Darfur region.
Following the capture of el-Fasher, reports from the region prompted the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open an investigation into alleged war crimes by both the RSF and SAF. A separate United Nations report noted that actions attributed to the RSF in el-Fasher possessed characteristics of genocide.
The war has caused a severe humanitarian crisis. The U.N. describes the situation in Sudan as the world’s largest displacement crisis, with reports indicating that 12 million people have been displaced from their homes. The World Food Programme’s latest figures state that 21.2 million people, or 41 percent of Sudan’s population, face high levels of acute food shortages.
