Two drone strikes hit a Kordofan university dormitory and a displacement shelter in El Obeid

Two drone strikes hit El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, late on Thursday 1 October. The Sudanese Doctors Network, a non-governmental medical group, released initial figures of five civilians killed and 47 wounded at a University of Kordofan dormitory, attributing the strike to the Rapid Support Forces. Radio Dabanga reported that a second strike, on a shelter for internally displaced people, killed a boy and wounded 12 children. The RSF did not immediately comment; the group typically denies targeting civilians, and Dabanga stated plainly that it could not independently verify attribution. The Doctors Network warned of a “worrying escalation” in attacks on civilian and public-service facilities, saying the targeting of educational buildings and student accommodation is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and is persisting amid what it described as international silence.

Angela Kearney, UNICEF Representative in Sudan, said: “Children come to these places in the hope of safety and protection, but last night any sense of safety was shattered. Attacks on the places children go for protection must stop. These children have nowhere else to go.” UNICEF said more than 400 children were reportedly killed or injured across Sudan between January and September 2026, with drone attacks accounting for a significant share, though the agency did not break out that share numerically. The strikes are not isolated. Radio Tamazuj reported that on 20 September the Doctors Network recorded two killed and 20 injured when drones struck residential areas of the city. Dabanga has documented repeated strikes on El Obeid homes, hospitals, schools, fuel and power facilities and displacement shelters; the same university was hit on 28 February 2026.

Assessment: The El Obeid strikes and the al-Mazroub claim are one story, not two. A force losing ground across a state while striking that state’s capital from the air is trading territorial control for coercive reach — the signature of a besieger that can no longer manoeuvre. It also means the obvious inference from SAF’s advances, that pressure on El Obeid is easing, is not yet supported. Two things to distrust. Anadolu dated the dormitory strike to Wednesday against three outlets saying Thursday. And headlines on Asharq Al-Awsat and Arab News put the combined toll at ten, which does not reconcile with the itemised reporting; until those bodies are read, no single total should be treated as established.