South Kordofan: Nearly 80 killed in drone strikes on kindergarten and hospital

A series of drone strikes on Thursday killed and wounded dozens of people, many of them children, in Kalogi, South Kordofan. The attacks hit a kindergarten and the entrance to a hospital.

Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that the first strike hit a kindergarten with more than 50 children inside. A second strike then hit a crowd of more than 150 people, including relatives searching for missing children. “As residents rushed to the local hospital, a third strike hit the entrance, where people had gathered to identify bodies and look for the missing.” Residents said many bodies were difficult to identify because of the extent of their injuries, and reported damage to nearby infrastructure.

In a statement yesterday, Kalogi executive director Essameddin Angalo said the death toll had risen to 79, including 43 children, and at least 38 people were injured. He warned that the real toll is likely much higher, as the hospital receiving casualties was also hit.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said the drone strikes killed more than ten children aged 5 to 7 at the kindergarten alone. It noted that services across Kordofan are collapsing, supplies are running out, and education is severely disrupted. UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric lamented the “grim update” at a press briefing, which he said comes “amid a sharp deterioration in the security situation” across Kordofan since early November.

‘History repeating itself’

On the same day as the attacks, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk had warned that the Kordofan region faces an imminent risk of atrocities as fighting escalates between the Sudanese Armed Forces, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N). “It is truly shocking to see history repeating itself in Kordofan so soon after the horrific events in El Fasher,” he said.

His office has documented at least 269 civilian deaths since October 25 from airstrikes, shelling, and extrajudicial killings, and warned that communication blackouts mean the real toll is likely far higher, the statement says. “We must not allow Kordofan to suffer the same fate as El Fasher.”