Sudan – The Sudanese Doctors Network reported on Saturday, January 17, that the death toll from a drone attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a market in Dilling, South Kordofan State, in southwestern Sudan, had risen to seven, including three children and two women. An additional 32 civilians, mostly children and women, were injured, some critically.

 

The RSF carried out the drone attack on Thursday, January 15, targeting a market in Dilling. The Sudanese Doctors Network strongly condemned the attack, which it described as a grave violation of international humanitarian law and a systematic crime against unarmed civilians. The network stated that targeting residential areas, markets, and civilian gatherings represents a dangerous escalation that exacerbates the suffering of citizens and undermines any efforts to protect civilians.

 

The statement also held the RSF leaders fully responsible for these attacks and the resulting civilian casualties and injuries caused by the targeting of civilian facilities. It called on the international community, the United Nations, and human rights organizations to intervene urgently to protect civilians in Sudan, to pressure for an end to the targeting of civilian-populated areas, and to lift the siege on South Kordofan State, particularly the city of Dilling, which has entered the third stage of famine due to shortages of basic food supplies caused by the siege.

 

It is worth noting that on the second day after the massacre, local media outlets reported that five people were killed and 25 others injured in an airstrike carried out by RSF drones targeting a market in Dilling. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan responded by saying, "We are concerned about reports of an airstrike by a drone on a crowded market in Dilling, South Kordofan."