{"id":54775,"date":"2025-09-24T21:10:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T18:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=54775"},"modified":"2025-09-24T21:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T18:10:07","slug":"un-at-least-11-children-killed-in-drone-strike-on-mosque-in-besieged-el-fasher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/24\/un-at-least-11-children-killed-in-drone-strike-on-mosque-in-besieged-el-fasher\/","title":{"rendered":"UN: At least 11 children killed in drone strike on mosque in besieged El Fasher"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAIRO (Associated Press<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

The United Nations children\u2019s agency said at least 11 children were killed in a drone strike four days ago that hit a mosque in the besieged city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.<\/p>\n

Local aid groups, activists, and the Sudanese army have accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of carrying out the strike during Friday prayers, which left at least 70 people dead and many others trapped under the rubble.<\/p>\n

Preliminary reports indicated that at least 11 children between the ages of 6 and 15 were killed and \u201cmany more\u201d injured in the attack, which also destroyed nearby homes, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement Monday, calling the strike \u201chorrific.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people killed were utterly innocent. They were people seeking shelter, praying in a mosque,\u201d Sheldon Yett, UNICEF\u2019s representative in Sudan, told the Associated Press. \u201cIt is a terrible, senseless act.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strike comes as Sudan\u2019s army and the RSF wage increasingly fierce battles as part of the country\u2019s ongoing civil war. The conflict has killed at least 40,000 people, displaced up to 12 million, and pushed millions to the brink of famine, according to the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n

Three doctors were among those killed in the mosque attack, according to the preliminary committee of the Sudanese Doctors Syndicate and the Sudan Doctors Union Network. The groups said they were among 231 doctors killed since the outbreak of the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis latest attack has torn families apart and shattered any sense of safety for children who have already suffered so much,\u201d Russell said, noting that El Fasher\u2019s siege has left children trapped in violence, with little access to food, clean water, or healthcare, while being \u201cforced to witness horrors no child should ever see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antoine G\u00e9rard, the UN\u2019s deputy humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, told AP on Monday that civilians in El Fasher now face increasing attacks and are unable to flee due to the siege and the lack of safe routes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are extremely concerned about the targeting of civilians, particularly hospitals, mosques, schools, and other civilian infrastructure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a statement Sunday, Egypt, Sudan\u2019s northern neighbor, condemned the drone strike, calling it \u201ca flagrant violation of international humanitarian law,\u201d and denounced the targeting of places of worship and innocent civilians.<\/p>\n

Fighting for control of El Fasher and surrounding areas has intensified since early April. More than 400 civilians have been killed in RSF attacks in the region since April 10, according to a UN Human Rights Office report released Friday. Most were killed in a large-scale assault that captured the nearby Zamzam displacement camp, which the RSF has since turned into a military base to launch further attacks on El Fasher.<\/p>\n

Thousands of children in Darfur remain at risk of malnutrition, with many already suffering from severe acute malnutrition, according to Yett. He added that residents of El Fasher have very limited access to food.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that all of North Darfur has been badly affected. We know disease rates are rising significantly. We know water and sanitation are very hard to access,\u201d Yett said, adding that the combination of these factors \u201cmeans many children are dying who should not be dying.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAIRO (Associated Press) The United Nations children\u2019s agency said at least 11 children were killed in a drone strike four days ago that hit a mosque in the besieged city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. Local aid groups, activists, and the Sudanese army have accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of carrying …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54777,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54775\/revisions\/54777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}