Cairo (AP): A drone attack blamed on Sudan's paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces struck a mosque during prayers Friday, killing at least 70 worshippers in the North Darfur region, aid workers and the Sudanese army said.

The strike in the besieged city of El Fasher completely destroyed the mosque, and the death toll would likely go higher because bodies still were buried in the rubble, said a worker with the local aid group Emergency Response Rooms. The worker spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.

Sudan's army, which has been fighting against the RSF in escalating violence since April 2023, said in a statement that it was mourning the deaths of at least 70 victims in the attack.

“Targeting civilians unjustly is the motto of this rebel militia, and it continues to do so in full view of the entire world,” the statement read.

Further details of the attack were difficult to obtain because it happened in an area where many international organisations have pulled out due to security risks in the crossfire of battles between the RSF and the army.

The fight between the two sides has erupted into a civil war that has killed at least 40,000 people, according to the World Health Organisation, displaced as many as 12 million others and pushed many to the brink of famine.

The Resistance Committees in El Fasher, a group of local activists who track abuses, posted a video Friday reportedly showing parts of the mosque reduced to rubble with several scattered bodies. The Associated Press could not independently verify the footage.

The Darfur Victims Support Organization, which monitors abuses against civilians, said the attack happened at a mosque on the Daraga al-Oula street at around 5 am local time, citing witnesses.

The drone strike was the latest in a series of attacks over the past week during heavy clashes between the two sides in El Fasher.

Satellite imagery posted Friday by the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale University showed signs of drone activity and the impact of explosions in the El Fasher area earlier in the week.

The images showed damage to several structures in the famine-stricken Abu Shouk refugee camp, Located outside El Fasher, the camp houses 450,000 displaced people and has been repeatedly attacked throughout the war.

“El Fasher is falling to RSF forces," who now control the Abu Shouk camp and have overrun the local operational headquarters of the army, the Yale-based group said.

The Resistance Committee in El Fasher said in a statement Thursday that the RSF had targeted several unarmed civilians, including women and older adults, in displacement shelters in the city.

On Tuesday, the Sudan Doctors Network had said that the RSF killed 18 people and kidnapped 14 others, including three girls, in El Fasher in what it said was a surge in kidnappings.

A Friday report by UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) recorded the deaths of at least 3,384 civilians in Sudan, mostly in Darfur, between January and June, nearly 80% of the number of civilian casualties recorded in 2024. The real death toll is likely significantly higher.