Sudan civil war: When drones strike the classroom

Published 31 July 2026 · health

Children in Sudan's besieged city of el-Obeid are afraid to go to school as drone attacks hit civilian infrastructure. Aid groups warn of a worsening

Children in Sudan's besieged city of el-Obeid are afraid to go to school as drone attacks hit civilian infrastructure. Aid groups warn of a worsening humanitarian crisis. Flattened houses and rubble where a school once stood: These are the scenes that have appeared in footage of the Sudanese city of el-Obeid published by Ayin Network, a nonpartisan Sudanese media outlet. Drone attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have caused enormous damage to civilian infrastructure, including power grids, transformers, water treatment plants, schools, universities and hospitals in the capital of North Kordofan. The local population is struggling to survive, according to Ahmed Awad, a native of el-Obeid and a project manager for children's rights organization Plan International there. The city — whose population previously numbered half a million but has now become home to several hundred thousand people who are displaced — is under siege, he added. There is a shortage of medical supplies as well as food and safe, clean water, and Awad said he saw long lines of people at just one water pump: "Sometimes you can spend all day to get one liter of water for two or three days." Most of the time, children and teenagers are the ones sent to fetch water. Millions across Sudan are going hungry, including over 825,000 children under 5 suffering from severe acute malnutrition Image: AFP He added that a drone had hit a primary school and killed three children, which had caused trauma among other children, many of whom no longer dared go to school.

"One of the mothers said three of her children cannot sleep because they are always in fear of something happening again," he said. Even when they're sitting in their classrooms, they live with the constant fear that a drone could strike at any moment. Awad and his colleagues at Plan International are working to provide psychological support to the affected children. Sudan's strategic crossroads El-Obeid is a strategically important location. The city is a trading hub in the middle of the desert on the only major route between Sudan's capital, Khartoum — which is controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) — and the western Darfur region, large parts of which are under the control of the RSF. El-Obeid is currently controlled by the army, which has some 13,000 soldiers stationed there, and has been on the front line since fighting shifted from Darfur to Kordofan at the beginning of the year. The RSF has deployed troops to about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) beyond the city limits, and has been using drones to bomb civilian infrastructure. Warnings of mass atrocities Analysts, aid organizations and the United Nations have warned that the RSF could soon capture el-Obeid. They fear a similar scenario to that which unfolded in the city of el-Fasher in the neighboring state of North Darfur in October 2025, when the RSF began by bombing infrastructure before storming the city after an 18-month siege.