Emergency Lawyers reported on October 10 that 41 people, including eight children and many women, were killed in the previous day’s drone strike at Abu Shandi in Sudan’s Blue Nile state. The rights group blamed the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. The attack hit a gathering of displaced people near the Ethiopian border, adding another emergency for families who had already fled the war and were seeking water, shelter and a way to earn a living.
The new account follows the Sudan Doctors Network’s October 9 report of 31 dead and 19 injured, carried by Anadolu. The network said four children were among the dead and six children and eight women among the wounded. Blue Nile’s government had initially reported at least 30 deaths and demanded an international investigation. As the accounts emerged over two days, medical care and identification of victims remained urgent demands on local communities.
The UN humanitarian office condemned the reported attack. Denise Brown, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, called for accountability and described a disregard for international humanitarian law. The Sudan Founding Alliance, known as TASIS, which includes the RSF, denied responsibility through spokesman Ahmed Tugud Lisan, according to reports of its statement. The alliance instead accused Egypt of carrying out the strike. The opposing accusations have accompanied demands for an investigation into the deaths.
Abu Shandi lies in Wadal Mahi locality. Radio Tamazuj quoted Ali Hajjo, secretary-general of the Blue Nile Civil Society Organisation, as saying that a water facility in the area, also known as Medina 6, had been hit. Its earlier report put the deaths at more than 20 and described many victims as women and children. The water facility described by Hajjo was a place where displaced people gathered for an essential daily need.
Local sources cited by Sudan Tribune described gold prospectors among those struck. Radio Tamazuj quoted activist Issam Geisan as saying displaced families had turned to artisanal mining because they lacked assistance. Seeking an income brought them into the same area where people gathered for water. Geisan called for urgent medical help and an investigation, as households that had lost their homes faced injuries and deaths among those sustaining them.
A separate attack in a continuing war
The Abu Shandi strike is a separate event from the October 7 attack in Damazin reported earlier by PUNT NEWS. That report attributed deaths of at least four women to Emergency Lawyers. Both events concern Blue Nile state, whose capital is Damazin, but they have different dates, locations and reported victims. The latest deaths deepen the danger facing displaced families in a state that has already suffered attacks on civilian sites during the same week.
The danger to essential supplies extends beyond Blue Nile. WFP said an October 3 attack hit two clearly marked trucks travelling with permission from Dilling to Kadugli in South Kordofan, killing a driver. The agency condemned the attack and called for safe humanitarian access. A vehicle carrying assistance and a gathering seeking water each place ordinary necessities within reach of the violence spreading through Sudan.
These reports show different points at which civilian survival meets danger: obtaining water, earning money after displacement and transporting food. The incidents took place in different states and at different times. Each disrupted an activity on which displaced people depend, extending insecurity beyond the fighting that forced them from their homes. A place of refuge offers limited security when essential daily activities expose families to further violence.
Medical treatment creates another urgent demand. After a mission to Darfur, WHO described shortages of staff and medicines in its October 6 briefing. The agency said its wider Sudan response required $97.7 million and had received about $22 million. That funding gap constrains a response already trying to provide care amid mass displacement, as fresh attacks bring more wounded people to services strained by the continuing war.
The Security Council’s October 8 renewal of Darfur sanctions concerns a different part of Sudan and an international enforcement mechanism. The renewal preserves an existing mechanism focused on Darfur. For injured people in Blue Nile, the demands are more immediate: reaching medical care and obtaining the help needed after another displacement.
A further reported strike killed miners near Sudan’s northern border with Egypt on October 10, Emergency Lawyers said. The government announced an investigation into that incident on October 12. In Blue Nile, the immediate needs remain treatment for the wounded, identification of the dead and help for displaced families. The Abu Shandi attack has brought another loss to people trying to rebuild a livelihood after flight, placing protection at the water points, work sites and routes on which their daily survival depends.