A drone strike on the paramilitary-controlled town of Kutum in Sudan's North Darfur state has killed at least 32 civilians, including women and children, a medical source and three residents told AFP on Thursday.
The strike on Wednesday came amid a surge in drone attacks by both Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been at war since April 2023.
Hassan Khater, a Kutum resident, told AFP in a text message that the drone struck a house where a wedding was taking place. He said he and others buried 32 victims from the attack on Thursday.
Another resident, Hussein Eissa, who also took part in the burial, sent AFP a list of the victims showing that 12 children were among the dead.
A third resident, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said the strike occurred at around 10:00 pm (0800 pm GMT) on Wednesday and "hit the house twice, completely destroying the building".
"All the victims were pulled from beneath the rubble and later buried," the resident told AFP .
The El-Fasher Resistance Committee, a pro-democracy group, said the strike hit the Al-Salama neighbourhood and blamed the army for the attack.
A medical source earlier told AFP that 12 bodies were brought to the hospital in Kutum, half of them children, including three female secondary-school students.
Sixteen others were injured, including women and children, and are receiving treatment, the source added, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
The army has yet to comment on the attack. The RSF, meanwhile, condemned it in a statement and put the death toll at no fewer than 56, including 17 children. 'Horrific injuries' Kutum lies about 120 kilometres (74 miles) northwest of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, which was the army's last stronghold in western Darfur before the RSF pushed it out last October.
The fall of the city was followed by reports of mass killings, looting, abductions and rape .
In recent months, near-daily drone strikes have disrupted life across Sudan, particularly in the southern Kordofan region, now the war's main battleground, and in RSF-controlled areas of the west, including Darfur.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it has treated around 400 people for drone-related injuries since February, after strikes hit civilian areas in eastern Chad near the Sudanese border and several parts of Darfur.
The United Nations has previously said drone attacks across Sudan had killed more than 500 civilians between January and mid-March, warning of "the devastating impact of high-tech and relatively cheap weapons in populated areas".
"The teams are receiving patients with horrific injuries: patients with transfixing wounds, amputated limbs, devastating burns -- many of whom are already dead by the time they reach the hospital," said Muriel Boursier, MSF's emergency coordinator in Darfur.
"The scale of violence and atrocity we witness is unbearable."
Last week, a drone attack blamed on the RSF struck a hospital in White Nile state, just east of Kordofan, killing 10 people after hitting an operating theatre and a maternity ward, MSF said.
On March 20, another attack - attributed to the Sudanese army in RSF-held territory - gutted El-Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur, killing 70 people and wounding 146.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 2,000 people have been killed and 720 injured in 213 attacks on health facilities across Sudan since the war began.
In 2025, Sudan accounted for 82 percent of all global deaths resulting from attacks on healthcare, the WHO said.
During the same period, MSF documented 100 violent incidents targeting its staff, facilities and medical supplies.
The conflict, now nearing its three-year mark, has already killed tens of thousands, displaced more than 11 million people and created what the UN describes as the world's largest displacement and hunger crises. The war has effectively divided Sudan , with the army controlling the north, east and centre, while the RSF dominates Darfur and, with allied forces, parts of the country's south.