Sudan Doctors Network says SPLM-N rebels killed 27 people in South Kordofan, including four children.

A medical organisation has accused a Sudanese rebel group aligned with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of killing 27 people, including four children, in the southern province of South Kordofan.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Sudan Doctors Network said the killings were carried out by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-N) in Qardud and Abu Hamama, areas inhabited by the Otoro tribe in South Kordofan.

“The attacks resulted in a large wave of displacement among citizens towards the Abu Hitan area and Kadugli,” it said.

Targeting unarmed civilians on ethnic grounds constitutes a “clear violation of international humanitarian law”, the group added, warning that continued violations threatened to turn “the conflict in South Kordofan into a broader ethnic conflict”.

The killings follow intense fighting earlier this year between forces linked to SPLM-N and the Otoro tribe, which is a minority group in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan.

The ethnic standoff, first instigated by land disputes, adds another layer to the country’s ongoing civil war, which broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF.

The Sudan Doctors Network urged the international community to exert pressure on SPLM-N leadership to halt attacks on civilians, noting that women were also among those wounded in the latest attacks.

The SPLM-N is a breakaway faction of the SPLM, the ruling party of neighbouring South Sudan.

Its leader, Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, has aligned his fighters with the RSF and joined ranks with the RSF-led parallel government in Sudan.

The civil war in Sudan has killed at least 59,000 people and forced some 14 million people from their homes.

According to the World Health Organization, some 33.7 million people, or two-thirds of the country’s population, require humanitarian assistance.