KHARTOUM: A paramilitary drone attack hit the family home of an army-aligned commander, killing nine of his relatives, two sources within the militia he leads said on Sunday.
The sources said the strike hit the family house of Abu Aqla Kaykal, commander of the Sudan Shield Forces, in the village of Al-Kaheli, around 40 kilometers east of Wad Madani, the capital of Al-Jazirah state in central Sudan.
They blamed the attack on the Rapid Support Forces, which have been at war with Sudan’s army since April 2023.
FASTFACTS
• Drone strikes by both sides have intensified in recent months, at times killing dozens of people in a single attack.
• Khartoum was hit twice this week for the first time in months, while fighting has escalated elsewhere.
Among those killed were two of Kaykal’s brothers, Azzam and Haidar, a relative, Siddiq Bakhit — a commander in the Sudan Shield Forces — and six children from the family, the sources said. The house and several neighboring homes were also damaged, they added.
Kaykal previously served as the paramilitary commander in Al-Jazirah state, where he has been accused of besieging entire villages.
He defected to the army’s side in October 2024, after which his fighters joined military operations that helped the army recapture key areas of central Sudan, including Al-Jazirah and the capital Khartoum.
Drone strikes by both sides have intensified in recent months, at times killing dozens of people in a single attack.
Khartoum was hit twice this week for the first time in months, while fighting has escalated elsewhere, including in Darfur, southern Kordofan and southeastern Blue Nile state.
Now in its fourth year, Sudan’s war has killed tens of thousands of people — with some estimates placing the death toll above 200,000 — displaced millions and triggered one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
