UPDATE – RSF shelling kills 16 civilians, including children, in Sudan's South Kordofan: Medics

UPDATES DEATH TOLL, REVISES HEADLINE

By Adel Abdelrheem, Mohammad Sio, Betul Yilmaz

KHARTOUM, Sudan/ ISTANBUL (AA) – At least 16 Sudanese civilians were killed, and several others injured in an attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in South Kordofan, according to local medics on Thursday.

The Sudan Doctors Network said in a statement that children, women, and elderly people were among the victims after the RSF and the allied Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) shelled the city of Dilling in the last 48 hours.

The Nuba Mountains Platform, a local non-governmental organization, reported early Thursday that nine civilians, including three children, had been killed and several others injured in an attack by the RSF and SPLM-N on Dilling's residential neighborhoods.

It said that Sudanese army forces later attacked the Taital area in South Kordofan, from which the artillery fire was launched, and managed to take control of it.

Neither the Sudanese army nor the SPLM-N faction or its RSF allies had commented on the report as of yet.

The cities of Kadugli and Dilling in South Kordofan have been under siege by the RSF and the SPLM-N faction since the early months of the war more than two years ago and have been repeatedly targeted by artillery and drone attacks.

The three Kordofan states—North, West, and South—have seen weeks of fierce fighting between the army and the RSF, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee.

Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states of the Darfur region in the west, except for some northern parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. The army, in turn, holds most areas of the remaining 13 states in the south, north, east, and center, including the capital, Khartoum.

The conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has since killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others.