CAIRO — Two weeks of intense clashes in southern Sudan have killed over 61 people, including nine children, a local medical group said Wednesday, fighting that is part of the larger war that has gripped the African country since 2023.

According to the Sudan Doctors Network, which monitors casualty tolls in the conflict, the fighting erupted earlier this month between forces linked to the rebel group Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North and the Otoro tribe in the town of Kauda, in South Kordofan.

Rebel leader Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, who commands the SPLM-N, has aligned his fighters with the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, a group that is fighting the Sudanese military.

Sudan’s war, now in its fourth year, has left the military in control over the north, east and central regions, including Sudan’s Red Sea ports and its oil refineries and pipelines. The paramilitary RSF and its allies control the western Darfur region and areas in the Kordofan region along the border with South Sudan — both regions rich in oil fields and gold mines.

Al-Hilu’s group, the SPLM-N, has been active in South Kodrofan and has joined a local government set up by the paramilitary RSF.

The SPLM-N is a breakaway faction of the SPLM, the ruling party of neighboring South Sudan. The Otoro tribe is a minority group in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan.

The war in Sudan broke out in April 2023 after long-simmering tensions between the army and RSF erupted into a full-out war. The conflict has killed at least 59,000 people, displaced some 13 million, and pushed many parts of the country into famine. More than 30 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

The statement from the doctors group said that according to testimonies its team in South Kordofan gathered from survivors, five women and nine children were among those killed over the past two weeks.

Mohamed Elsheikh, the group’s spokesperson, told The Associated Press that poor communication has made it difficult to verify the full toll, which is likely higher as the clashes continue.

The doctors group also said that SPLM-N fighters burned homes and shops and looted properties. Survivors reportedly told the group that civilians were “indiscriminately targeted.”

The group also warned that areas around Kauda have seen “systematic burning” and attacks on civilians, with no safe corridors for evacuating the wounded or delivering aid.

The SPLM-N did not immediately respond to request for comments.

In Dilling, another town in South Kordofan, artillery shelling by the RSF on Tuesday killed seven people and wounded 17, according to a local hospital. Umm Bakhita Hospital director Omran Teia in Dilling told the AP that civilians were targeted by the paramilitary and SPLM-N.

Sudan’s both warring sides have been accused by the United Nations and rights groups of committing atrocities, including ethnic cleansing, extrajudicial killings and sexual violence against civilians. Aid groups say the true toll could be much higher as access to areas of fighting across the vast country remains limited.

___

Associated Press writer Yassir Abdalla in Shendi, Sudan, contributed to this report.