The United Nations has confirmed that six Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed, and six others wounded in a drone strike launched by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces on a UN base in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state, on Saturday.
According to UN officials, the drone directly targeted a peacekeeping encampment in the besieged city, which remains largely surrounded by RSF fighters. The strike triggered immediate evacuations by multiple UN agencies and humanitarian groups, who cited an increasingly untenable security environment in Kadugli.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the assault as an “unjustifiable & may constitute war crimes,” demanding that those responsible be held to account.
Bangladesh's interim leader Mohammad Yunus issued a statement mourning the fallen soldiers, all of whom were serving under the blue helmets of the UN mission.
Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council denounced the drone strike as a “gross violation of international humanitarian law,” calling it a deliberate attack on a protected UN facility. In its statement, the council described the incident as an act of terrorism reflecting RSF’s contempt for international norms and the laws of war.
The assault came just two days after a public clash between Guterres and RSF officials. The UN chief had described the group as “rogue forces,” prompting RSF to accuse the United Nations of maintaining “double standards.”
On Friday, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on four senior RSF commanders, including Abdul Rahim Hamdan Dagalo, the group’s deputy commander and brother of RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti). London accused the commanders of orchestrating mass killings, systematic sexual violence, and targeted attacks on civilians.
International pressure has mounted against RSF in recent weeks. In November, the European Union sanctioned Abdul Rahim Dagalo, while on Tuesday, the United States blacklisted a transnational network aiding the RSF in recruiting foreign mercenaries.
The global rebuke follows RSF’s seizure of El Fasher in late October, the last major SAF stronghold in Darfur. Human rights monitors reported ethnically-motivated massacres, mass abductions, and widespread sexual violence during and after the offensive.
The civil war between the SAF, led by Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by his former deputy Hemedti, has killed tens of thousands and displaced over 12 million people since the war's outbreak in April 2023. The UN warns that Sudan now faces one of the world’s gravest humanitarian catastrophes, with its infrastructure in ruins and millions left without access to essential services.
