ALBAWABA- At least 47 civilians, most of them children, were killed and about 50 others wounded when Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out a series of suicide drone strikes on the town of Kalogi in South Kordofan, Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) officials said Friday.
The attacks, which hit a kindergarten and multiple civilian structures, mark one of the deadliest assaults on noncombatants in Sudan’s 32-month conflict and have triggered widespread international outrage.
The strikes began early Friday and were jointly attributed to the RSF and its ally, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (al-Hilou).
The Sudan Doctors Network, which initially confirmed nine deaths, said the toll surged as rescuers pulled bodies from collapsed classrooms and families searched for missing children. “These were precise strikes on places of learning and refuge,” a spokesperson told Al Jazeera, describing charred schoolrooms and shattered shelters.
SAF officials accused the RSF of committing war crimes under the cover of a tenuous humanitarian truce declared by the paramilitaries. The military said the attacks occurred as RSF forces pressed deeper into West Kordofan, days after claiming control of the strategic town of Babanusa following artillery barrages and drone attacks that displaced more than 177,000 people.
The United Nations warned on December 4 that escalating violence in the Kordofan region risks “mass atrocities,” with famine, disease, and displacement already killing more than 40,000 people nationwide since April 2023. Amnesty International called for an immediate investigation into the Kalogi strike, citing potential violations of international humanitarian law.
As Quad mediators, the U.S., UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, push for a three-month ceasefire and fresh negotiations, entrenched positions on both sides threaten to plunge South Kordofan deeper into catastrophe.
