At least 27 civilians killed in RSF-affiliated attack on North Kordofan villages, medical group says
A militia aligned with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed at least 27 people, including elderly residents, in an attack on villages west of Bara in Sudan’s North Kordofan state, the Sudan Doctors Network reported on Friday.
The Cairo-based medical NGO said the assault took place Thursday in the al-Murrah area, describing it as “a new crime targeting unarmed civilians in areas with no military presence.” The attack came on the second day of Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday, deepening the shock and grief among local communities.
Sudan has been engulfed in civil war since April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF erupted into open conflict. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced more than 10 million, and driven the country into what the United Nations calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The Kordofan region, straddling key oil and gold areas, has become a critical battleground, with the RSF and its allies controlling swaths of western Darfur and parts of Kordofan along the South Sudan border.
Thursday’s violence is the latest in a string of attacks on civilians in areas far from frontline combat. The Sudan Doctors Network, in a statement posted on Facebook, condemned the killings as “a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and all norms and conventions that prohibit attacks on civilians, especially amid the catastrophic humanitarian conditions people are enduring because of the ongoing war.”
The group warned that “continued attacks on civilians and safe villages” are worsening the crisis, driving more families into displacement and stripping them of livelihoods. The RSF has repeatedly clashed with the army over Bara, a strategic town that has changed hands multiple times, and the surrounding villages have faced recurrent raids.
The attacks come as the humanitarian situation reaches a breaking point. A report released Thursday by the U.N.-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) found that more than 40% of Sudan’s population—nearly 19.5 million people—are facing acute food insecurity. Aid agencies describe the scale of suffering as unprecedented in Sudan’s modern history, with famine already confirmed in parts of North Darfur’s Zamzam camp.
International pressure on both warring parties has remained limited. The Sudan Doctors Network called on “the international community and human rights and humanitarian organizations to condemn these violations and act urgently to protect civilians and stop the repeated attacks on residential areas by pressuring RSF leaders to end violations against civilians.”