At least 14 people, including five children and two women, have been killed in Sudan’s Kordofan province following a deadly assault by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied rebel fighters, local medical monitors reported. The attack, which targeted the strategic town of Dilling, has raised fresh alarms over the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in the region.
According to the Sudan Doctors Network, an independent organization tracking the casualties of the civil war, the joint offensive also left at least 23 others wounded, including seven children. The network warned that the scale of violence and the targeting of civilian areas could trigger a humanitarian catastrophe similar to the ongoing crisis in El Fasher, Darfur, where intense fighting has trapped hundreds of thousands of civilians without access to basic necessities.
The violence escalated on Saturday when RSF fighters and their allies from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) launched a coordinated offensive on Dilling, the provincial capital of West Kordofan. While the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) claimed they successfully repelled the assault, the renewed fighting has shattered a brief period of relief for the town’s residents. The military had only recently succeeded in breaking a prolonged RSF-led siege on Dilling that had lasted for more than two years. During the blockade, the town’s population endured severe, famine-like conditions due to the systematic disruption of food, water, and medical supplies.
The alliance between the RSF and the SPLM-N in Kordofan represents a significant challenge to the Sudanese military’s efforts to stabilize the central regions of the country. Since the outbreak of the conflict in April 2023—sparked by a violent power struggle between the SAF, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo—more than 40,000 people have been killed, according to United Nations estimates. The war has displaced millions, creating one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. The latest attack on Dilling underscores the fragile nature of military gains and the persistent threat posed to civilians in areas previously thought to be secured.