Sudan paramilitary drone strike hits border city near Eritrea

Sudanese paramilitaries have carried out a rare drone strike on the eastern city of Kassala, near the Eritrean border, a source from the rival army-aligned government said Saturday.

"A drone targeted the fuel storage area at Kassala airport," the government source told AFP, blaming it on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and reporting no casualties or damage.

Since April 2013, the regular army, headed by Sudan's de facto leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been battling the RSF, led by Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, in a brutal war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.

As the conflict entered its third year, it has left Africa's third largest country effectively divided, with the army in control of the centre, east and north, while the RSF holds sway in most of the vast western Darfur region and parts of the south.

Kassala is located about 400 kilometres (250 miles) away from the nearest known position held by the RSF, south of the capital's twin city of Omdurman.

It is also about the same distance from areas under the control of RSF allies, the branch of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu.

In late February, the paramilitaries and their allies signed a charter in Kenya announcing a plan to establish a government rivalling the army-aligned one based in Port Sudan.

Also on Saturday, a military source told AFP that a cargo plane was targeted at the airport in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state.

The source said the plane had landed to resupply RSF fighters, without specifying who targeted it.

Witnesses reported hearing a loud explosion early in the morning coming from the airport area.

(AFP)