Sudanese paramilitary attack kills 50, including 33 children : NPR
This is a location map of Sudan with its capital, Khartoum.
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CAIRO — A drone attack by Sudanese paramilitary forces hit a kindergarten in south-central Sudan, killing 50 people, including 33 children, a group of doctors said.
Paramedics at the scene in the town of Kalogi, South Kordofan state, were the target of a “second unexpected attack”, the group said in a statement Friday evening.
The death toll is expected to be higher, but communications outages in the area have made it difficult to report casualties.
Thursday’s attack is the latest in fighting between the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, also known as the RSF, and the Sudanese army, at war for more than two years. It is now concentrated in the oil-rich Kordofan states.
“Killing children in their school is a horrific violation of children’s rights,” UNICEF Sudan Representative Sheldon Yett said Friday.
“Children should never pay the price for conflict,” Yett said.
He said UNICEF urges all parties “to immediately end these attacks and allow safe and unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to reach those who desperately need it.”
Hundreds of civilians have been killed across Kordofan states in recent weeks as fighting intensified from Darfur after the RSF took control of the besieged town of El-Fasher.
Sudanese military airstrikes killed at least 48 people, mostly civilians, in Kauda, South Kordofan, on Sunday.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk has warned that Kordofan could face new atrocities like those at El-Fasher.
RSF’s violent takeover of El Fasher was marked by executions of civilians, rapes and sexual assaults, as well as other atrocities. Thousands of people have managed to escape and thousands more may be killed or trapped in the city.
The RSF and the Sudanese army have been fighting for power in Sudan since 2023. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the war, according to the World Health Organization, and 12 million people have been displaced. However, humanitarian groups say the real death toll could be much higher.
