22 people killed in RSF strike on South Kordofan hospital

At least 22 people have been killed, including four medical workers, in shelling by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia targeting a military hospital in the town of Al-Kiwek in the country’s South Kordofan state.

The Sudan Doctors Network said in a statement on Thursday that the hospital’s medical director and three other personnel were killed. Eight other people were also reported injured.

The Sudan Doctors Network, which represents medics across Sudan called this incident "a war crime and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and conventions guaranteeing the protection of civilians and medical facilities".

It added that the attack was "part of a series of attacks that have swept through South Kordofan State, putting several hospitals out of service".

Humanitarian agencies have long documented a pattern of violence that have devastated Sudan’s health system with grave humanitarian consequences.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) documented the deaths of more than 1,600 people in attacks on medical infrastructure in the country in 2025 alone.

On Monday, the RSF  committed another attack on the southern city of Kadugli, approximately 40 kilometres south of al-Kiwek, killing at least 15 civilians including seven children.

A drone strike hit the al-Shartai Health Centre in the Hajar al-Nour neighbourhood of Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state, hours after the Sudanese army broke the city's nearly three-years-long siege.

The fighting caused approximately 80% of the city’s population, some 147,000 people, to flee, according to the UN.

Kadugli had been caught in fierce fighting between the army and RSF paramilitary group since the onset of the civil war in April 2023.

But the region has recently become one of the most active frontlines in the war amid an ongoing effort by the rebel paramilitary group, which is believed to be backed by the UAE, to push deeper into Sudan’s central corridor and retake Kordofan.