Drone strikes by Sudan's army have killed more than 300 people, according to sources on the ground, in one of the deadliest single incidents of the country's devastating civil war.

The strikes hit two targets: a truck carrying people travelling to a funeral, and a market alleged to be supplying fuel to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group that has been battling the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of the country since April 2023. The combination — mourners and market-goers — meant the victims were overwhelmingly civilians.

A war fought from the air

Both sides in Sudan's war have turned increasingly to drones, which are cheap, deniable and devastating against soft targets. Markets, hospitals, aid convoys and gatherings have all been struck, and the distinction between military and civilian targets has blurred as the conflict has ground on.

The war between the army and the RSF has produced what the United Nations calls the world's largest humanitarian crisis: tens of thousands killed, millions displaced, and famine conditions in several regions. Aid agencies have repeatedly warned that attacks on markets and supply routes deepen hunger, because markets are how most Sudanese families eat.

No accountability in sight

There was no immediate detailed comment from the army on the reported strikes. International efforts to mediate a ceasefire have repeatedly stalled, and both sides face accusations of atrocities that investigators say may amount to war crimes.

For the families in the truck — travelling, as Sudanese families do, to bury their dead — the war arrived from a clear sky. It is a sentence that could describe much of Sudan today.