KHARTOUM, Sudan

Eight civilians, including five children, were killed and 11 others injured in a drone strike by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a health center in the city of Kadugli in South Kordofan, a Sudanese medical group said Tuesday.

In a statement, the Sudan Doctors Network said three women were also among the victims in the attack that targeted Al-Shartai Health Center in the Hajar Al-Nour neighborhood of Kadugli.

Significant damage was reported in the attack, the group said, adding that another drone strike hit the same city’s Kalba neighborhood without causing casualties.

The network said that attacks on health facilities and medical workers “constitute a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and all conventions that guarantee the protection of civilians and medical establishments.”

There was no comment from the rebel group on the attack.

Head of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said early Tuesday that army forces managed to break a siege imposed by the RSF on Kadugli and entered the city.

The RSF and their ally, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), had imposed the siege on the city since the early months of the war that erupted with the army on April 15, 2023.

Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states in the western Darfur region, except for parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. The army holds most areas of the remaining 13 states across the south, north, east and center of the country, including the capital, Khartoum.

The conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF has killed thousands of people and displaced millions.

*Writing by Rania Abushamala in Istanbul