On Sunday, a drone strike, purportedly carried out by the Sudanese army, targeted Sudan's Customary Court in al-Zawiya Ghara, killing at least 35 people and injuring others.
All the victims were inside the court building and its immediate surroundings when the attack occurred, according to the Emergency Lawyers Group, which monitors violence against civilians in Sudan.
Al-Zawiya Ghara is one of many villages in North Darfur state controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The drone fired at least four missiles at the court building while local leaders conducted a meeting.
Among the dead are two RSF field commanders, four tribal elders, and traditional leaders hailing from the Mahameed branch of the Rizeigat, according to the Sudan Tribune.
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Sunday's attack comes amid heightened Sudanese army drone operations across Darfur, closing in on RSF positions to weaken the paramilitary group after successive defeats in North Kordofan.
The largely RSF-dominated Sudan Founding Coalition, known as Tasis, blamed the Sudanese army for the strike.
In the Sudan Tribune, a Tasis spokesperson, Ahmed Tugod Lisan, urged an independent investigation to hold those responsible to account.
The Emergency Lawyers Group has demanded an investigation into the drone strike and denounced the targeting of the court, deeming attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure a “grave violation of international humanitarian law”.
It further stated that drones are increasingly used to target civilian areas and gatherings, exacerbating the risks faced by the population.
The RSF also stands accused of committing war crimes, including carrying out drone strikes on civilians over the past three years of the war.
The paramilitary group’s siege on el-Fasher, one of Darfur’s largest cities, in October of 2025, bore the “hallmarks of genocide” per a United Nations fact-finding mission.
RSF commanders sentenced
In early July, the anti-terrorism and crimes against the state court in Port Sudan sentenced RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, and 15 other defendants to death in absentia.
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According to the Sudan Tribune, they were convicted of their roles in the killing of West Darfur Governor Khamis Abdullah Abakar, crimes against humanity, war crimes, prohibited warfare, and genocide in el-Geneina.
Presided over by special judge Mohamed al-Amin, the ruling constitutes the first judicial conviction of the paramilitary group’s leadership since the outbreak of Sudan’s war on 15 April 2023.
The trial centred heavily on the 2023 assassination of Governor Abakar, a day after he denounced an RSF shelling on the el-Jamarik neighbourhood.
Human Rights Watch concluded in 2024 that actions in the capital of West Darfur, el-Geneina, constituted ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide against the Masalit people and other non-Arab communities.
Although video footage circulated online of Abakar’s body being mutilated by known RSF soldiers, the paramilitary group repeatedly blamed the Sudanese Armed Forces and denied responsibility.
Middle East Eye reported in June 2023 that around 1,500 people were killed in el-Geneina in the first two months of the war, forcing tens of thousands of Masalit residents to flee el-Geneina and West Darfur on foot to seek refuge across the border in eastern Chad.
Among the trial’s defendants were two brothers of Hemedti: RSF deputy leader Abdel Rahim Hamdan Dagalo and Algoney Hamdan Daglo Musa, also known as al-Qoni.
The court also handed down convictions to Abdel Rahman Juma Barkallah, the RSF commander in West Darfur, and al-Tijani al-Tahir Karshoum, the state’s former deputy governor.
The court held Hemedti legally responsible for directing the genocide of the Masalit and siege of el-Geneina, citing the systematic destruction and looting of property, as well as deliberate attacks on civilians, residential areas, schools, and places of worship.
Dagalo was convicted of co-organising the siege of el-Geneina, the civilian displacement, and the genocide of the Masalit.
Qoni was found liable for facilitating the siege, while Barkallah was liable for leading frontline RSF soldiers during systematic assaults on Masalit neighbourhoods.
The court ordered the confiscation of all RSF assets and instructed the state to request Interpol red notices to secure the arrest and extradition of those convicted.
