Passenger vehicle hit near mining area
At least nine people were killed and 12 injured when a drone struck a civilian passenger vehicle in North Darfur, according to eyewitnesses and the Al-Malha Emergency Room. The incident was reported on June 19, 2026, as having occurred the previous Thursday in Al-Malha locality, northeast of El Fasher.
The emergency room said the vehicle was travelling toward artisanal mining areas near Sabreen when it was attacked. Several injured passengers required urgent surgery and were transferred to Al-Malha for treatment, it said. A medical source at Al-Malha Rural Hospital separately confirmed to Darfur24 that wounded people had been admitted after the incident.
Local sources cited by Darfur24 believed the Sudanese army carried out the strike. That attribution was not presented as an independently established finding. Al-Malha, about 210 kilometres northeast of El Fasher and close to Sudan’s border with Libya, was described by the outlet as being under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.
The Al-Malha Emergency Room appealed for ambulances, medicines and surgical materials to address the casualties. It estimated immediate medical requirements at approximately $5,000. The figure represented the responder group’s assessment rather than a broader calculation of damage caused by the attack.
Darfur24 also reported a separate drone incident on the same day at Umm Bayada market in rural Al-Malha. A drone that local accounts believed belonged to the Sudanese army struck the market, causing a fire, according to the report. The emergency room said the market was completely destroyed and civilians were injured, although the cited account did not state their number. It estimated financial losses at about $10,000.
A separate account carried by Middle East Monitor cited the Sudanese rights group Emergency Lawyers as saying that RSF attacks on civilian areas in Malha and Um Baru had caused deaths. That report attributed the violence to the RSF, contrasting with the local attribution reported by Darfur24 concerning the passenger-vehicle strike. the available reporting does not establish whether the accounts describe the same attack, connected incidents or distinct episodes, so the allegations cannot be treated as interchangeable.
The incidents occurred against a conflict that began in April 2023. Darfur24 reported that both sides have increasingly used drones, with strikes recorded against military positions as well as markets and other civilian areas in several parts of Sudan. Humanitarian organizations have repeatedly urged the warring parties to protect civilians and keep military operations away from populated places. The responder group also said some of the wounded needed urgent surgery after being transferred to Al-Malha for treatment.
