At least five people, including a child, have been killed and several others injured after a Sudanese rebel group attacked residential areas in the South Kordofan province, according to a medical organisation.

The Sudan Doctors Network, in a statement on Friday, accused the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) of carrying out the artillery attack in the town of Dilling.

The organisation said the heavy bombardment of civilian areas was a clear violation of international humanitarian law, resulting in civilian casualties and further worsening an already dire humanitarian situation.

“The Sudan Doctors Network calls on the international community to take immediate action to end these violations and exert meaningful pressure on the leadership of the SPLM-N (al-Hilu Faction) to cease attacks against civilians and residential areas,” it said.

The SPLM-N is a breakaway faction of the SPLM, the governing party of neighbouring South Sudan. Its leader, Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, has aligned his fighters with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and joined ranks with the RSF-led parallel government in Sudan.

Previous violence

In a separate statement issued just hours earlier, the medical group said SPLM-N forces attacked the areas of Debi and Luweri near the town of Kauda on Thursday, killing more than 21 people, including women and children.

The network said those attacks specifically targeted the Otoro tribe, a minority group in the Nuba Mountains.

The killings follow clashes earlier this year driven by land disputes, adding another layer of ethnic friction to the country’s wider civil war between the Sudanese army and the RSF.

The recent fighting came despite a ceasefire initiative backed by the RSF last month. Al-Hilu did not commit to the agreement, and his forces launched attacks on at least 10 Otoro villages, displacing thousands of civilians between August 20 and 26.

UN warning

The escalation coincides with broader warnings from a United Nations-backed independent fact-finding mission, which reported on Thursday that foreign involvement, including external supply networks, foreign personnel, and military drones, is driving the conflict and worsening violence against civilians nationwide.

Since fighting between the Sudanese military and the RSF broke out in April 2023, the war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced approximately 13 million, and pushed parts of the country into famine.

According to the World Health Organization, nearly 34 million people, about two-thirds of Sudan’s population, now require urgent humanitarian assistance.