File Photo: A man gestures as he inspects the damage on the grounds of a hospital in Khartoum. AFP
The victims included patients and their companions, the medic said on condition of anonymity, adding that the hospital serves civilians in the city and surrounding areas as well as military personnel.
Dilling, in South Kordofan state, is controlled by Sudan’s army and the country’s legitimate government, but has been under siege by the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied armed groups.
The wider Kordofan region has seen some of the fiercest fighting in Sudan’s war, as the RSF presses an offensive aimed at expanding its territorial control across the south.
The RSF controls large parts of Kordofan along with allied militias, including a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, which has a longstanding presence in the Nuba Mountains.
Together, these forces have encircled key army-held cities, including Dilling and the South Kordofan state capital Kadugli, about 120 kilometres (75 miles) to the south.
According to the United Nations, famine has gripped Kadugli since September. The UN says Dilling is likely facing similar conditions, though access constraints have prevented an official declaration.
Sunday’s strike came a day after a drone attack on a United Nations peacekeeping base killed six Bangladeshi troops in Kadugli.
Wider offensive
Last week, SPLM-N said the capture of Dilling and Kadugli was “only a matter of time”, urging the army and its allied forces to withdraw.
The RSF, emboldened by its seizure in October of the army’s last major stronghold in Darfur, has advanced through Kordofan in a bid to seize Sudan’s central transport corridor.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned that the region risks witnessing atrocities similar to those committed by the RSF in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, including mass killings, abductions and sexual violence. The RSF has been accused by the UN, the United States and rights groups of committing war crimes during the conflict.
RSF forces have set their sights on Kadugli, Dilling and the North Kordofan capital El-Obeid, which lie along a strategic north-south axis linking the South Sudan border to Khartoum.
El-Obeid also sits on a key highway connecting Darfur to the capital, which the army recaptured in March.
With the RSF now in control of all major cities in Darfur, Sudan is effectively divided, with the army holding the centre, east and north, while the RSF and its allied militias dominate the west and parts of the south.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced around 12 million and created what the UN describes as the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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