RSF Artillery Strikes Kill 16 Civilians in Sudan’s Kordofan. Khartoum, Sudan — At least 16 civilians have been killed in an artillery strike on the besieged city of Dilling in Sudan’s Kordofan region, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, a medical monitoring group.
The attack, which the network condemned as a deliberate targeting of civilians, is part of an escalating campaign of violence across Kordofan that has killed more than 100 civilians since early December.
According to local reports, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allies in the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) shelled residential areas of Dilling over the past two days. Women, elderly residents, and children were among those killed, the Sudan Doctors Network.
The bombardment has increased the strain on health facilities already overwhelmed by outbreaks of cholera and dengue fever in the city, which has been under siege for over two years.
The International Organization for Migration reported that more than 50,000 people have fled violence across Kordofan’s three states since late October, when the RSF captured a major army base and intensified operations in the region. Some 710 people have been displaced from Dilling alone during this period.
The situation in Kordofan has drawn international concern.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk warned earlier this month that history was “repeating itself” in Kordofan, following mass atrocities in Darfur. Six Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed when drones struck their base in Kadugli, South Kordofan’s capital, on December 13.
The attack, which UN Secretary — General Antonio Guterres said “may constitute war crimes,” forced the UN mission to evacuate its logistics base after determining the security situation had made operations untenable.
The RSF, which has established a pattern of systematic atrocities throughout the war, was also accused of killing more than 1,000 civilians during a three-day assault on the Zamzam displaced persons camp in Darfur in April.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has also been accused of atrocities in the war. Sudan’s conflict, which erupted in April 2023 between SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, has, according to some monitors, killed more than 100,000 people and displaced 14 million in what the UN terms the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
Further details are expected.
