Ten Killed in Drone Strike on North Darfur’s Malha Market

20 December 2025

RSF fighters pictured outside the Al Malha municipality building on March 22, 2024

December 20, 2025 (AL-MALHA) – At least ten people were killed on Saturday in a drone strike on a market in the Malha area of North Darfur, local activists said.

Malha, located about 210 kilometres north of the state capital, El Fasher, near the Libyan border, has been under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since March. The group seized the area after the Sudanese army and its allies in the Joint Force withdrew toward northern Sudan.

The town is a strategic hub in Darfur, sitting at a crossroads between Al-Debba to the north and Hamrat al-Sheikh to the east. The Sudanese Air Force has previously conducted strikes in the area to target supply trucks arriving from Libya, as the RSF uses the region as a logistics base for equipment sourced from eastern Libya.

“At least 10 people were martyred in a drone bombardment that targeted the town of Malha in North Darfur State,” the North Darfur Emergency Rooms Council said in a statement.

The council did not identify who carried out the strike.

The statement condemned the attack on the Al-Hara market, noting that the strike ignited fires in several shops and caused heavy property damage. It described the targeting of crowded markets as a “heinous crime” and a dangerous escalation against civilians, calling on humanitarian and medical groups to provide urgent aid to the wounded.

Since taking control of Malha, the RSF has faced allegations of executing several Meydob tribal leaders, civil servants, religious figures, and local volunteers.