A suspected Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drone strike killed at least three people and injured several others in Tumbul, eastern Al Jazirah state, on Wednesday, striking a crowd gathered for a military celebration, according to local sources and officials.

The attack targeted an event held by the Sudan Shield Forces, a group allied with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), to mark the army’s 71st anniversary. The group’s commander, Abu Aqla Kaikal, senior army officers, and members of the Popular Resistance were in attendance.

“A suicide drone…crashed between Al-Shorouq School and Al-Inaya Medical Clinic…killing three people and injuring 10 others, including students,” local sources told Sudan Tribune.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Sudan Shield Forces blamed the “Dagalo militia,” a common pejorative for the RSF, for the “vile and aggressive” attack, confirming it resulted in the “martyrdom and injury of several citizens, including three children.”

In a video address, Commander Kaikal dismissed the attack as the “last gasps of a dying beast” and vowed it would only increase his forces’ resolve. He announced that reserve troops from the parade would be deployed immediately to frontlines in Kordofan to help break the siege of El Fasher.

The Sudan Shield Forces, led by Kaikal, are a key ally of the SAF after defecting from the RSF in October 2024. The defection was instrumental in allowing the army and its allies to recapture all of Al Jazirah and Khartoum states from the paramilitary group.

Widely circulated video clips from the scene showed Sudan Shield Forces soldiers attempting to shoot down the drone with rudimentary weapons mounted on a donkey-drawn cart, known locally as a “caro.”

Wednesday’s attack follows a similar incident last May, when a strategic drone strike on a Sudan Shield Forces camp in the Butana region killed 13 people, including seven military personnel.