Paramilitary drone attack on mosque in Sudan kills at least 70, army says
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.
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Fascism will not be allowed to enter through the back door of vote rigging: CM Siddaramaiah
New Delhi: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday asserted that fascism would not be allowed to enter India “through the back door of vote rigging” and called upon citizens to collectively defend the country’s democratic foundations.
Speaking after participating in an anti–vote rigging protest organised in New Delhi, Siddaramaiah said the gathering was not merely a political demonstration but a stand to protect Indian democracy. “We have come to the heart of our republic not as Congress workers or voters, but as protectors of Indian democracy,” he said.
Emphasising the importance of the right to vote, Siddaramaiah said it was the most sacred right guaranteed by the Constitution and the very foundation of democracy.
“Through voting, a farmer shapes the future of his children, a worker safeguards his dignity, a youth realises dreams, and a nation expresses its collective will,” he said.
He accused the BJP-led Union government of attempting to undermine this right through what he termed systematic vote rigging, including the alleged misuse of the special revision of electoral rolls. “This power is being stolen repeatedly,” he alleged.
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Warning against authoritarian tendencies, Siddaramaiah said history had shown that dictatorship does not begin with violence but with the misuse of institutions and manipulation of democratic systems.
“Across the world, authoritarian regimes pretend to protect democracy while quietly subverting it. This is what the BJP is doing today,” he charged.
He alleged that the ruling party was controlling institutions, intimidating electoral machinery, distorting voter lists, suppressing voter turnout in opposition strongholds, and misusing money and power. “This is not mere maladministration. Vote rigging is an attack on the very idea of India,” he said.
Siddaramaiah further claimed that governments formed through “stolen votes” could not be considered democratic.
“Such regimes survive through fear, fraud and distortion of the people’s mandate,” he said, adding that vote rigging posed the biggest threat to the republic since Independence.
Praising Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Siddaramaiah said he had shown exceptional courage in exposing alleged irregularities in voter lists, booth-level manipulation and “systematic, organised vote rigging” across several states, including Karnataka, Haryana and Bihar.
Referring to Karnataka, Siddaramaiah cited Mahadevpura and Aland constituencies as examples highlighted by Gandhi. In Mahadevpura, he said, thousands of allegedly fake and fraudulent voter entries and discrepancies in electoral rolls pointed to a narrow BJP victory. In Aland, he said, attempts were made to remove the names of legitimate voters ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections.
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He noted that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) had recently filed a chargesheet accusing seven persons, including a former BJP MLA and his son, of attempting to delete the names of around 6,000 voters in Aland.
“This is a significant legal step in the fight against vote rigging,” he said.
Siddaramaiah concluded by stating that the fight against vote rigging was rooted in constitutional morality, Ambedkarite thought and the core principle of democracy. “Sovereignty belongs to the people, not to any party, regime or those who seek to steal elections,” he said.
