A drone on the Sudan mosque kills 78, Medic tells the BBC

More than 70 people were killed following a drone strike on a mosque in the Darfur region of Sudan, a senior medical source told BBC.

The attack on Friday in the city of El-Fasher was attributed to the paramilitary support forces (RSF), but the group did not take responsibility.

The RSF and the army have been engaged in a fierce civil war for more than two years.

The paramilitaries gain ground as they fight to take Total El -Fasher control – the last bastion of the army in Darfur and housing more than 300,000 civilians who were trapped by the fighting.

A resident told the BBC that the drone had struck in morning prayers, instantly killing dozens of people.

The medical source said that 78 died and about 20 injured, but the body’s extraction process of the building’s rubble was still underway.

BBC VERIFY has authenticated images showing around 30 bodies wrapped in linces and covers next to the mosque, which was located west of the city.

This week, the RSF launched a renewed offensive on El Fasher, which she besieged for more than a year. The reports indicate that this included fierce attacks on Abu Shouk, a camp of displaced people near the city.

Satellite images suggest that RSF units now control a large part of the camp, according to the humanitarian research laboratory of the University of Yale (HRL), which monitors wars.

According to the unit, satellite images also show that the RSF has entered the siege of joint forces, a collective of armed groups allied with the Sudanese army.

The headquarters is located in a former United Nations compound, considered a critical line of defense.

The BBC checked images showing RSF fighters inside the expansive complex, although it is not clear if they have taken full control.

These apparent advances would place El-Fasher airport and the siege of the army division in the Direct Fire field of the RSF.

The HRL says that El-Fasher will fall into the RSF unless the Sudanese army receives immediate reinforcements.

A complete capture of the city’s RSF would cement control of the group from the western part of the country and strengthen a de facto division, with the army in northern and east control.

Sudan analysts and activists fear that the paramilitary group targets civilians still in the city, most of which belong to ethnic groups which they consider its enemies.

On Friday, a United Nations report warned against “the increase in the ethnicization of the conflict”, saying that the two parties retaliated against those accused of having collaborated with opposite parties.

But the United Nations and other international organizations have also documented a systematic RSF ethnic cleaning policy against the non -Arab communities of the territory they conquer.

In a recent report, medical charities without borders said that RSF troops “spoke plans to” clean El Fasher “from his non -Arab community …”.

The RSF has already denied such accusations, saying that they had nothing to do with “tribal conflicts”.