Sudanese army says two drones targetting military celebration intercepted

Khartoum, July 31 (IANS) The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on Wednesday announced the interception of two drones that targetted a military celebration at a military camp in eastern Sudan attended by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

“Our ground anti-aircraft weapons intercepted two hostile drones which targeted the site of the graduation ceremony of batches of cadets from military, air and naval colleges after the ceremony ended in Gebeit,” the SAF said in a statement.

Five people were killed in the incident, the statement said, noting that minor injuries were being counted.

Earlier in the day, local media reported that the Gebeit military camp had been attacked by drones, while al-Burhan, also chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council, was attending the graduation ceremony.

No party has yet claimed responsibility for the drone attack, the first of its kind on the Red Sea state in eastern Sudan, Xinhua news agency reported.

Sudan has been engulfed in a deadly conflict between the SAF and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023, resulting in the loss of at least 16,650 lives, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in June.

Meanwhile, an estimated 10.7 million people are now internally displaced in Sudan, with approximately 2.2 million others seeking refuge in neighboring countries, OCHA said in its most recent update on Monday.

–IANS

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