The strikes have pounded the central region since early December and continued through Friday, after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized a major army base in Babnusa following a week of intense fighting
By Mathins Owoseni
At least 104 civilians have been killed in drone attacks across Sudan’s Kordofan region as clashes between rival military factions escalated sharply in the country’s brutal civil war, now in its third year.
The strikes have pounded the central region since early December and continued through Friday, after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized a major army base in Babnusa following a week of intense fighting.
The escalation has displaced tens of thousands and overwhelmed health facilities already strained by cholera and dengue outbreaks, as the main fighting shifts from Darfur in the west to the vast central region of Kordofan.
The deadliest attack was reported from a kindergarten and a hospital in Kalogi, South Kordofan, where 89 people were killed, including 43 children and eight women.
United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said he was “alarmed by the further intensification in hostilities” and warned that targeting medical facilities violates international humanitarian law.
Six Bangladeshi peacekeepers serving with the UN mission were killed on December 13 when drones struck their base in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan. UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned what he described as “horrific drone attacks,” warning that assaults on peacekeepers “may constitute war crimes under international law.”
The following day, Dilling Military Hospital was also attacked, though casualty figures differed. The Sudan Doctors Network reported that nine people were killed and 17 others injured, describing the strike as a “systematic targeting of health institutions.”
UN officials said six people were killed and 12 others wounded, many of them medical workers.
The government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) blamed the attacks on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has not responded to the accusations.
The fighting in Kordofan marks a major expansion of the conflict following the RSF’s seizure of el-Fasher in October, the army’s last stronghold in Darfur. According to a new report by researchers at Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), RSF fighters killed civilians trying to flee the city and then systematically attempted to erase evidence by burying, burning, and removing bodies.
The escalation comes as international efforts to revive peace talks have resumed. On December 15, SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, expressing willingness to work with United States President Donald Trump on peace initiatives.
The next day, Egypt and the United States jointly rejected “any attempts to divide Sudan” and called for a comprehensive ceasefire.
Sudan has topped the International Rescue Committee’s Emergency Watchlist for three consecutive years.
The war, which began in April 2023, has killed more than 40,000 people according to UN estimates, though aid groups say the real number is likely far higher. More than 14 million people have been displaced in what the UN has described as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
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