Sudan airstrike kills five children, rights group says

An airstrike killed five children in Abu Zaeima in Sudan’s North Kordofan state on Thursday, the rights group Emergency Lawyers said, blaming the attack on the army.

Emergency Lawyers, which monitors abuses in Sudan’s conflict, said an army Antonov aircraft struck a house in the village, killing five children from the same family and injuring their mother. The Sudanese military did not immediately comment on the allegation.

The reported strike came as fighting intensified in North Kordofan, a strategic region linking eastern and western Sudan where the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been battling for territory.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said Thursday that repeated drone strikes on civilian sites in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, had deepened the humanitarian crisis and harmed children. It said recent attacks had hit a shelter for displaced families, a university dormitory and warehouses containing more than 330,000 textbooks.

UN figures show that more than 1,100 people were killed by drone strikes across Sudan during the first half of this year.