At least five killed in Sudan’s South Kordofan in rebel group attack

At least five people, including a child, were killed when rebel forces shelled residential areas in Dilling in Sudan’s South Kordofan province, according to the Sudan Doctors Network.

The medical organisation accused the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, or SPLM-N, of carrying out the artillery attack on Friday. It said several other people were injured and described the bombardment of civilian areas as a clear violation of international humanitarian law.

“The Sudan Doctors Network calls on the international community to take immediate action to end these violations and exert meaningful pressure on the leadership of the SPLM-N (al-Hilu Faction) to cease attacks against civilians and residential areas,” it said.

The SPLM-N is a breakaway faction of the SPLM, the governing party of neighbouring South Sudan. Its leader, Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, has aligned his fighters with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and joined the RSF-led parallel government in Sudan.

The network said a separate attack near Kauda on Thursday killed more than 21 people in Debi and Luweri. It said the violence specifically targeted the Otoro tribe, a minority group in the Nuba Mountains, and included women and children among the dead.

The killings followed clashes earlier this year driven by land disputes, adding ethnic tension to Sudan’s wider war between the army and the RSF. The latest fighting also came despite a ceasefire initiative backed by the RSF last month. Al-Hilu did not commit to the agreement, and his forces attacked at least 10 Otoro villages between August 20 and 26, displacing thousands of civilians.

A United Nations-backed fact-finding mission warned on Thursday that foreign involvement, including supply networks, foreign personnel and military drones, was driving the conflict and worsening violence against civilians. The war, which began in April 2023, has killed tens of thousands, displaced approximately 13 million people and pushed parts of Sudan into famine. The World Health Organization says nearly 34 million people, about two-thirds of the population, need urgent humanitarian assistance.

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The Sudan Doctors Network calls on the international community to take immediate action to end these violations and exert meaningful pressure on the leadership of the SPLM-N (al-Hilu Faction) to cease attacks against civilians and residential areas.