World News in Brief: Deadly drone strikes in Sudan, families killed in West Bank, Ukraine casualties update

This article is published in association with United Nations.

Relentless drone strikes across Sudan’s Kordofan and Darfur regions are causing civilian casualties and further restricting humanitarian access, the UN warned on Monday.

Two people were reportedly killed in a strike on the town of Al Rahad, southeast of El Obeid in North Kordofan, where a hospital was also destroyed.

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 Additional casualties were reported two days earlier when drone strikes hit Al Fula, the capital of West Kordofan.

Across Darfur, strikes between Thursday and Saturday caused further casualties and widespread damage, including in the Wadi Sira area west of El Fasher and in several neighbourhoods of Nyala, South Darfur’s capital.

Another food market struck

A strike on a market in Akidong in West Darfur on 12 March also triggered a large explosion. Medics with the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said 23 injured civilians – including women and children – were treated at a hospital it supports across the border in Chad.

“The situation is truly horrific,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said.

Despite the insecurity, aid agencies continue delivering assistance. In River Nile State, partners have installed water tanks in displacement sites and schools in Shendi to ease shortages.

The UN again urged all parties to protect civilians and ensure “rapid, safe and unimpeded” humanitarian access.

UN human rights office condemns killing of Palestinian families

Two Palestinian families were reportedly killed on Sunday by Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, has said.

An airstrike on one of the last few houses still standing in Middle Gaza’s Az Zuwaida killed a man, his pregnant wife, their young son and a teenager, the agency stated.

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In the northern occupied West Bank, meanwhile, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a couple and their two children aged five and six in Tammoun – all suffered shots to the head.

Physical and verbal abuse

The two older sons survived and said that the Israeli soldiers had physically assaulted and verbally abused them, after killing their parents and brothers.

The UN office said such incidents raised serious concerns about a “persistent trend” of unlawful killings of Palestinians with impunity.

Since the announcement of a ceasefire deal in Gaza in October 2025, 663 people have been killed in Israeli military attacks, according to the Palestinian authorities.

The violence against Palestinians has intensified since the start of the wider regional war on 28 February, the UN human rights office said, citing movement restrictions that keep Palestinians in “locked silos” and claiming that armed Israeli settlers and security forces roam free, attacking Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank.

Ukraine: Civilian casualties remain high in February, UN reports

At least 188 civilians were killed and 757 injured in Ukraine in February, according to the latest report from the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country, highlighting the continuing toll of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The figures are similar to those recorded in January but remain significantly higher than in the same month in previous years.

Civilian casualties in February were around 31 per cent higher than in February 2025 and 83 per cent higher than in February 2024, reflecting intensified hostilities and the persistent use of explosive weapons in populated areas.

Missiles and drones

Most civilian casualties were recorded in territory controlled by the Ukrainian Government. The majority were caused by missile and drone attacks, artillery fire and other explosive weapons used in urban and residential areas.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, the UN has verified more than 15,000 civilian deaths and over 41,000 injuries across Ukraine.

Human rights monitors stress that the actual number of casualties is likely to be considerably higher, as verification remains difficult in areas where active fighting continues.

© UNICEF/Oleksii Filippov

A girl walks up a staircase inside Zlatopil Lyceum in Kharkiv region, eastern Ukraine.