Medical Group Condemns SPLM-N Attack That Left 27 Dead, Including Four Children

The Sudan Doctors Network has documented 27 fatalities, including four children, following assaults by SPLM-N rebels in South Kordofan.

Published On 26 Aug 202626 Aug 2026

A medical organisation has accused a Sudanese rebel group aligned with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of killing 27 people, including four children, in the southern province of South Kordofan.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Sudan Doctors Network reported that the killings were carried out by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-N) in the areas of Qardud and Abu Hamama, which are inhabited by the Otoro tribe in South Kordofan.

“The attacks resulted in a large wave of displacement among citizens towards the Abu Hitan area and Kadugli,” the statement read.

The group emphasized that targeting unarmed civilians on ethnic grounds constitutes a “clear violation of international humanitarian law”, warning that continued violations threatened to transform “the conflict in South Kordofan into a broader ethnic conflict”.

The killings follow intense fighting earlier this year between forces linked to SPLM-N and the Otoro tribe, a minority group residing in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan.

The ethnic tensions, initially sparked by land disputes, add another dimension to the country’s ongoing civil war, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF.

The Sudan Doctors Network has called on the international community to pressure SPLM-N leadership to cease attacks on civilians, noting that women were among those wounded in the most recent violence.

The SPLM-N is a breakaway faction of the SPLM, which serves as the ruling party of neighbouring South Sudan.

Its leader, Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, has aligned his fighters with the RSF and joined ranks with the RSF-led parallel government in Sudan.

The civil war in Sudan has claimed at least 59,000 lives and displaced approximately 14 million people from their homes.

According to the World Health Organization, some 33.7 million people, representing two-thirds of the country’s population, require humanitarian assistance.

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