Drone warfare has become an increasingly prominent feature of Sudan's conflict, which erupted in April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The Emergency Lawyers group, which has been documenting war abuses, said the attack on the key hub in the southern Kordofan region began on Wednesday evening and continued into Thursday, striking residential areas, a funeral gathering and a truck carrying food supplies.

At least 19 other people were wounded, the group said, blaming the attacks on the RSF.

The claims could not be independently verified and there was no immediate comment from the RSF.

El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, has been partially encircled for months by paramilitary forces.

Residents described scenes of devastation after the attacks, with homes reduced to rubble and bodies rushed to hospitals.

"The roofs of houses collapsed on their occupants," said one witness from the Al-Matar neighbourhood in the east of the city.

"When you look at some houses, you feel no one could have survived," he told AFP.

Another resident said his cousin was killed in the strikes and that he had seen more than seven bodies brought to a local hospital.

A third witness said several of the dead were relatives.

A medical source told AFP that two children and a woman believed to be their mother were among the dead.

According to the United Nations, at least 880 civilians were killed in drone strikes across the country between January and April this year.

Fighting has intensified in recent months in the Kordofan region and Blue Nile state near the Ethiopian border, particularly after the RSF captured El-Fasher last October, the army's last major stronghold in western Darfur.

Kordofan remains a key battleground, linking RSF strongholds in Darfur to army-controlled areas in eastern Sudan, and continues to be fiercely contested.

The wider conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 11 million from their homes, creating what the UN describes as the world's largest displacement and hunger crises.