50 die as paramilitary drone hits kindergarten in Sudan

At least 50 people, including 33 children, were killed in a drone attack by the Sudanese paramilitary forces on a kindergarten in south-central Sudan, a doctors’ group said.

Paramedics on the scene in Kalogi town in South Kordofan state were targeted in “a second unexpected attack,” Sudan Doctors’ Network said in a statement late on Friday. Emergency Lawyers, a rights group tracking violence against civilians in Sudan, reported in a statement on Saturday that the second strike on paramedics treating survivors in Kalogi and said “a third civilian site near the previous two” was also attacked.

The group condemned the attack, blaming the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, for the strikes, calling them “a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians, especially children and vital civilian infrastructure.”

The death toll is expected to be higher, but communication blackouts in the area have made it difficult to report casualties. Thursday’s attack is the latest in the fighting between the RSF and the Sudanese military, who have been at war for over two years. It is now concentrating in the oil-rich Kordofan states.

“Killing children in their school is a horrific violation of children’s rights,” said UNICEF Representative for Sudan Sheldon Yett in a statement on Friday. “Children should never pay the price of conflict,” said Yett. He added that UNICEF urges all parties “to stop these attacks immediately and allow safe and unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to reach those in desperate need.”

Hundreds of civilians have been killed throughout the Kordofan states in the last few weeks as intensified fighting shifted from Darfur after the RSF took over the besieged city of el-Fasher.

Sudanese military aerial strikes on Sunday killed at least 48 people, mostly civilians, in Kauda, South Kordofan. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk warned that Kordofan could face new atrocities like those in el-Fasher.