Seven killed in drone strike on hospital in Sudan's restive Kordofan region

PORT SUDAN: A drone strike Sunday on an army hospital in the besieged southern Sudan city of Dilling left "seven civilians dead and 12 injured", a health worker at the facility told AFP.

The victims included patients and their companions, the medic said on condition of anonymity, explaining that the army hospital "serves the residents of the city and its surroundings, in addition to military personnel".

Dilling, in the flashpoint state of South Kordofan, is controlled by the Sudanese army but is besieged by rival paramilitary forces.

The greater Kordofan region is currently facing the fiercest fighting in Sudan's war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as both seek to wrest control of the massive southern region.




The RSF controls swathes of Kordofan along with their allies, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) faction led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, which has a historic foothold in the region's Nuba Mountains.

Together, the forces have besieged the region's key cities with army divisions, including Dilling and South Kordofan state capital Kadugli, some 120 kilometres (75 miles) south.

Famine has gripped Kadugli since September, according to the UN, which estimates Dilling is suffering the same conditions, but a lack of access to data has prevented an official declaration.

Sunday's strike comes a day after a drone strike on a United Nations peacekeeping base killed six Bangladeshi troops in Kadugli.

Wider attack

Last week, SPLM-N said the capture of Dilling and Kadugli was "only a matter of time", urging the army and its allied militias to withdraw.

The RSF, emboldened by its seizure of the army's last holdout position in Darfur in October, has pushed through Kordofan in an attempt to capture the country's central corridor.

The UN has repeatedly warned the region is in danger of witnessing a repeat of the atrocities that unfolded in North Darfur state capital El-Fasher, including mass killing, abductions and sexual violence.

Paramilitaries have set their sights on Kadugli, Dilling and North Kordofan state capital El-Obeid, which lie on a north-south axis between the South Sudan border and the capital Khartoum.

El-Obeid also lies on a key highway that connects Darfur to Khartoum, which the army recaptured in March.

With the RSF in control of all of Darfur's major cities, Sudan is effectively split in two.

The army holds the centre, east and north, while the RSF and its allies control the west and parts of the south.

Across the country, the war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.