Fifty killed, including 33 children, in drone attack on kindergarten in Sudan


At least 50 people, including 33 children, have been killed in a drone attack on a kindergarten in the town of Kalogi, in Sudan’s South Kordofan region, the BBC reported.

It said the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group battling the army in Sudan’s civil war, was blamed by the Sudan Doctors’ Network for the attack, which occurred on Thursday.

According to the BBC, the RSF did not comment on the attack, but it in turn accused the army of hitting a market on Friday in a drone attack in the Darfur region.

The attack targeted a fuel depot at the Adre border crossing with Chad, the BBC reported, adding that it could not independently verify the reports of the casualties.

The RSF said the army attacked the Adre crossing because it was used for the “delivery of aid and commercial supplies”.

According to the army-aligned foreign ministry, the kindergarten was struck twice with missiles from drones.

Civilians and medics who rushed to the school were also attacked, the ministry added.

Responding to reports of the attack in Kalogi, a spokesman for the UN children’s agency Unicef said: “Killing children in their school is a horrific violation of children’s rights.”

“Children should never pay the price of conflict,” Sheldon Yett added.

The agency, he said, urged “all parties to stop these attacks immediately and allow safe, unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to reach those in desperate need”.

Sudan has been at war since April 2023 when a power struggle broke out between the RSF and the army.

According to the Sudan War Monitor, a group of researchers tracking the conflict, Thursday’s attack caused civilian casualties and significant damage to a market.

The military did not immediately comment on the reports from Darfur.

Wedged between Sudan’s capital Khartoum and Darfur, the region made up of North Kordofan, South Kordofan and West Kordofan has been a frontline in the civil war.

The battle for the Kordofans—which have a population of almost eight million—has intensified as the army pushes towards Darfur, the BBC reported.


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