CAIRO — A drone attack by Sudanese paramilitary forces hit a kindergarten in south-central Sudan, killing 50 people, including 33 children, a doctors group said.
Paramedics on the scene in the town of Kalogi in South Kordofan state were targeted in “a second unexpected attack,” the Sudan Doctors Network said in a statement late Friday.
Emergency Lawyers, a rights group tracking violence against civilians in Sudan, in a statement Saturday reported the strike on paramedics treating survivors in Kalogi and said “a third civilian site near the previous two” was also attacked.
The group condemned the attack, blaming the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, for the strikes, calling them “a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians, especially children, and vital civilian infrastructure.”
The death toll is expected to be higher, but communication blackouts in the area have made it difficult to report casualties.
Thursday’s attack is the latest in the fighting between the RSF and the Sudanese military, who have been at war for more than two years. The fighting is now concentrated in the oil-rich Kordofan states.
“Killing children in their school is a horrific violation of children’s rights,” UNICEF Representative for Sudan Sheldon Yett said in a statement Friday. “Children should never pay the price of conflict.”
He said UNICEF, the United Nations children’s organization, urges all parties “to stop these attacks immediately and allow safe, unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to reach those in desperate need.”
Hundreds of civilians were killed in the last few weeks throughout the three Kordofan states — North, South and West — as intensified fighting shifted from Darfur after the RSF took over the besieged city of El Fasher.
Sudanese military aerial strikes killed at least 48 people, mostly civilians, in Kauda, South Kordofan.
U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Turk warned that Kordofan could face new atrocities like those in El Fasher.
Separately, the RSF in a statement Friday condemned a drone strike on the Chad-Sudan border, accusing the Sudanese military of being behind it, and posted a video showing billowing black smoke. The attack couldn’t be independently verified, and it is unclear whether there were casualties. There was no immediate comment from the Sudanese military.
RSF’s takeover of El Fasher was marked by atrocities including executions of civilians, rapes and other sexual assaults. Thousands escaped and thousands more are feared killed or trapped in the city.
The RSF and the Sudanese military have been fighting for power over Sudan since 2023. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the war, according to the World Health Organization, and 12 million displaced. Aid groups say the actual death toll could be much higher than 40,000.
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