At least five people, including a child, were killed and several others injured when a Sudanese rebel group fired artillery at residential areas in the South Kordofan province. The Sudan Doctors Network blamed the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement‑North (SPLM‑N) for the heavy bombardment of the town of Dilling, calling the assault a clear violation of international humanitarian law.
The organisation urged the international community to act immediately to halt the attacks and to pressure the SPLM‑N leadership, led by Abdel Aziz al‑Hilu, to stop targeting civilians. The SPLM‑N, a breakaway faction of the ruling party in neighbouring South Sudan, has aligned its fighters with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and joined the RSF‑led parallel government in Sudan.
Earlier on Thursday, the network reported that SPLM‑N forces had also struck the areas of Debi and Luweri near Kauda, killing more than 21 people, many of whom were women and children. Those attacks were said to specifically target the Otoro tribe, a minority group in the Nuba Mountains.
The killings come amid a broader civil war between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which began in April 2023 and has already claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced around 13 million people and pushed parts of the country into famine. A United Nations‑backed fact‑finding mission has warned that foreign involvement, including external supply networks and military drones, is fuelling the violence.
Since the outbreak of fighting, the war has left nearly 34 million people—about two‑thirds of Sudan’s population—in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the World Health Organization says. The latest attacks on Dilling and surrounding villages further exacerbate the dire humanitarian situation in the region.
