KHARTOUM, Sudan/ ISTANBUL

A medical group accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Tuesday of killing 13 civilians, including children, in a drone strike in El-Obeid, the capital city of North Kordofan in southern Sudan.

The Sudan Doctors Network said nine members of the same family were among the victims in the attack that targeted a house in Al-Jallabiya neighborhood in the city.

Denouncing the attack as a “massacre,” the network said the targeted area “is purely civilian and contains no military sites or forces.”

“This is a full-fledged war crime and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, and demonstrates the deliberate targeting of unarmed civilians, especially children,” it added.

The group called on the international community and human rights and UN organizations to take action “to stop these crimes by pressuring RSF leaders to halt the killing of civilians and the targeting of residential areas.”

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

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 now holds all five in the Darfur region, except for a few northern areas of North Darfur still under army control. The Sudanese army continues to dominate most of the remaining 13 states across the south, north, east, and central regions, including the capital, Khartoum.

The bloody conflict between the army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others.