By Nadine Osman
London ,(The Muslim News): A drone strike attributed to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed at least 79 civilians, including 43 children, and injured 38 others in a targeted attack on civilian infrastructure in Sudan’s South Kordofan state, local officials reported on Friday. The assault on the city of Kalogi on Thursday marks one of the deadliest single incidents in the region since the war began.
According to Issam al-Din al-Sayed Angalo, Executive Director of Kalogi, the attack unfolded in a devastating sequence. A drone fired three missiles at the town. The first struck a kindergarten, causing initial casualties. As residents gathered to rescue the wounded, a second missile was launched. A third then hit the rural hospital where victims were being transported, killing and wounding more people and destroying large sections of the medical facility. Angalo warned that the death toll could rise further due to the hospital’s destruction.
The final casualty count provided by officials listed 79 dead, including 32 men, four women, and 43 children. A further 38 people were injured. The South Kordofan state government condemned the assault as a “heinous crime” perpetrated by the RSF and its ally, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM-N).
The strike occurs within a critical geopolitical context, coming just two months after a U.S. intelligence assessment detailed a significant intensification in the flow of advanced weaponry to the RSF. According to those reports, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has supplied Chinese-made drones, including “Rainbow series” models capable of long-endurance precision strikes, alongside other arms transferred through complex transnational networks. UAE has denied it was supplying arms to RSF.
This incident underscores a rapid security collapse across Kordofan, where over 41,000 people have fled violence in the past month. The wider war, which began in April 2023 between the RSF and the Sudanese army, has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced 12 million. The RSF now controls most of Darfur, while the military holds the capital and other regions.
The international response was one of sharp condemnation. UNICEF and Save the Children jointly denounced the strike, expressing particular shock at the targeting of a kindergarten. “The intentional or reckless harm to children, or attacks on places where they should be safe, is indefensible,” said Francesco Lanino of Save the Children. UNICEF representative Sheldon Yett described it as a “horrific violation” of children’s rights, warning of a critical humanitarian situation with confirmed famine conditions in parts of South Kordofan, a near-total collapse of medical services, and widespread school closures.
The South Kordofan government has called on the international community to designate the RSF as a terrorist organisation, emphasising that this event starkly highlights the devastating human cost of a war intensified by sophisticated foreign weaponry.
[Photo: Demonstrators, holding banners and placards, gather in front of the historic Brandenburg Gate to hold a solidarity rally for Sudan, calling for an end to the war in the country in Berlin, Germany on November 22, 2025. Photojournalist: Halil Sağırkaya/AA]
