At least 24 people were killed, including eight children and infants, after a drone strike on a humanitarian convoy in Sudan on Saturday.

Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary has been blamed for the attack on the convoy which was transporting residents fleeing fighting in the Dubeiker area. Authorities say the attack occurred near the city of Rahad in the North Kordofan region.

The RSF is also thought to be behind a Friday attack on a UN World Food Program convoy that was delivering aid to displaced persons in the same area. One person was reported killed in that attack, with several more injured according to the UN.

Fighting has shifted to Kordofan since the RSF took control of Sudan's western Darfur region in October. 

Although many wounded in Saturday's drone attack were immediately taken to Rahad for treatment, the city, like so many others in the region, lacks medical supplies.

The Sudan Doctors Network, a professional association that monitors the war, urged the international community to "take immediate action to protect civilians and hold the RSF leadership directly accountable for these violations."

It also condemned the Friday WFP attack, calling it a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law," adding that it "amounts to a full-fledged war crime."

The RSF has not claimed responsibility for either attack.

Sudan crisis: 40,000 or more dead, millions displaced and facing starvation

Sudan has been in a state of chaos since war broke out between the country's military and the RSF in the capital Khartoum in April 2023.

The ensuing war has left more than 40,000 dead according to the UN, though observer groups say the actual number may be several times higher.

The conflict has also sparked the world's largest humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 14 million people as disease and famine spread unabated.

The UN says nearly half of Sudan's population of roughly 50.5 million faces acute food insecurity.

Edited by: Zac Crellin