Nine civilians, including three children, were killed and others wounded on Wednesday after artillery shelling hit the city of Dilling in Sudan’s South Kordofan state, a Sudanese non-governmental platform said.
The Nuba Mountains Platform, a local civil society group, said in a statement that the shelling was carried out by forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu and allied with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and targeted residential neighbourhoods in the city.
The bombardment killed six adults and three children and wounded several others, the platform added.
It said that Sudanese army forces later attacked the Taital area in South Kordofan, from where the artillery fire was launched, and managed to take control of it.
Neither the Sudanese army nor the SPLM-N faction or its RSF allies had commented on the report as of yet.
Power infrastructure hit
Meanwhile, a separate drone attack in the east of the country targeted a key power plant, plunging major cities including capital Khartoum and Port Sudan into darkness, according to several witness accounts shared with AFP.
Witnesses reported seeing flames and smoke rising in the town of Atbara in River Nile State, which is controlled by the army in its ongoing war with the RSF.
"Two members of the civil defence were killed while trying to extinguish the fire that erupted after the first drone strike by the militia," said a power plant official, referring to the RSF. The official said rescue workers were hit by a second strike and were being treated for injuries.
RSF attacks over the months
The cities of Kadugli and Dilling in South Kordofan have been under siege by the RSF and the SPLM-N faction since the early months of the war more than two years ago, and have been repeatedly targeted by artillery and drone attacks.
The three Kordofan states — North, West, and South — have seen weeks of fierce fighting between the army and the RSF, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee.
Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states of the Darfur region in the west, except for some northern parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. The army, in turn, holds most areas of the remaining 13 states in the south, north, east, and centre, including the capital, Khartoum.
The conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has since killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others.
