At least 33 people were killed in Sudan due to attacks attributed to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which have been fighting the army since April 2023, according to first responders on Saturday.

The attacks followed six consecutive days of RSF drone strikes targeting the army-led government's wartime capital, Port Sudan, which damaged critical infrastructure, including the power grid.

On Friday evening, at least 14 members of the same family were killed in an air strike that hit a displacement camp in Darfur's vast western region, according to a rescue group, which blamed the paramilitaries for the attack.

According to a group of volunteer aid workers, the Abu Shouk camp "was the target of intense bombardment by the Rapid Support Forces on Friday evening," which resulted in the death of "fourteen Sudanese, members of the same family," as well as several wounded, as stated in their report.

The camp near El-Fasher, the last Darfur state capital still out of RSF control, faces famine, according to the UN, and shelters tens of thousands displaced by Darfur's past conflicts and the ongoing war that has engulfed Sudan since 2023.

Abu Shouk is situated near the Zamzam camp, which the RSF captured in April following a brutal offensive that forced nearly all of its inhabitants to flee, despite the UN reporting that close to a million displaced people had previously sought refuge there.

A medical source told AFP that a drone strike by the RSF hit a prison in El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, on Saturday. The attack killed at least 19 people and wounded 45 others. The city remains under army control. 

Disruption to aid raises fears

The Rapid Support Forces have not issued a direct statement on this week's attacks on Port Sudan, located about 650 kilometres (400 miles) from their nearest known positions on the outskirts of greater Khartoum.

The strikes have heightened concerns about potential disruptions to humanitarian aid across Sudan, where famine has already been declared in certain areas and nearly 25 million people are facing severe food insecurity.

The UN's humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, expressed deep alarm over the continuing drone attacks targeting Port Sudan, which serves as a critical center for their relief efforts and a major gateway for delivering aid.

Nearly all aid into Sudan flows through the port city, which the United Nations has called "a lifeline for humanitarian operations," while warning of more "human suffering in what is already the world's largest humanitarian crisis."