Sudan’s paramilitary kills at least 40 people as fighting spreads into Kordofan region

CAIRO — An attack by Sudan’s paramilitary force on the city of el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan province, killed at least 40 civilians, local media reported, following reports of atrocities elsewhere in the region as the two-year war intensifies.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said dozens were injured in Monday’s attack but didn’t specify the perpetrators. It warned that the humanitarian situation across Kordofan was worsening. The Sudan Tribune and other media said the RSF launched drone strikes targeting a funeral service in el-Obeid on Monday, killing the civilians.

The Kordofan and neighboring Darfur regions emerged as the epicenter of Sudan’s war over the past months. Last week, the RSF seized el-Fasher, the last army stronghold in Darfur, and advanced into neighboring Kordofan.

The war between the RSF and the military began in 2023, when tensions erupted between the two former allies that were meant to oversee a democratic transition after a 2019 uprising. The fighting has killed at least 40,000 people, according to the World Health Organization, and displaced 12 million. Over 24 million people are facing acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Program.

Most recently, RSF fighters launched attacks on the town of Bara in the central part of North Kordofan, killing at least 47 people, including nine women, according to the Sudan Doctors Network.

The network expressed its concern about the “horrific crimes” by the RSF in Bara, describing it as a “scene that epitomizes the most grotesque forms of human rights violations and systematic killings.”

It said it received field reports indicating that dozens of bodies were piled up inside homes, after the RSF prevented the victims’ families from burying them. It is unclear if those were the bodies from the latest attack. Meanwhile, the number of missing is increasing daily due to poor communications in Bara, according to the group.

Last week, the RSF took el-Fasher after an 18-month siege. The paramilitary rampaged through a hospital, killing over 450 people, according to the World Health Organization, and went house to house, killing civilians and committing sexual assaults.

Those killed included Dr. Adam Ibrahim Ismail, who worked in el-Fasher and was shot dead by the RSF in what the doctors’ network described as a “heinous crime” targeting doctors and aid workers. The group said Ismail was arrested during the RSF’s incursion of the city and killed in a field.

The RSF has denied committing atrocities, but testimonies from survivors who fled the city, along with online videos and satellite imagery, described the carnage following the attack. Tens of thousands have been displaced.

El-Fasher is one of two regions hit by famine, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global hunger monitoring group, said Monday. The other is the town of Kadugli in South Kordofan province.

Ross Smith, World Food Program’s director of emergency response, told reporters this week that the agency is noticing “very poor food consumption” with people going for days without eating in some parts of the country.

“We’re seeing very high levels of severe malnutrition and we have many reports of mortality,” he said. “This is related to conflict for sure.”