(MENAFN) At least 11 civilians, including three children, were killed in western Sudan’s North Kordofan State after an attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to local medical officials on Sunday.

The Sudan Doctors Network reported that 31 others sustained injuries during the assault in the Shaq Al-Noum area. Among the wounded were nine women—some of whom are pregnant.

In a strongly worded statement, the group described the incident as “one of the worst brutal assaults that flagrantly violates all humanitarian norms and international conventions.”

The network also urged immediate international intervention, calling on global organizations such as the United Nations and African Union “to act immediately and seriously to stop these systematic violations, and to work towards bringing the perpetrators to justice.”

In response, the RSF denied responsibility and instead blamed the Sudanese military, accusing it of launching deadly air raids involving barrel bombs on civilian areas in Al-Fulah, a city in neighboring West Kordofan State.

The paramilitary group asserted in its statement that the airstrikes were “a continuation of the army’s campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide.”

The Sudanese army has not issued any public response to the RSF's allegations.

Tensions in North Kordofan have sharply escalated amid the ongoing power struggle between Sudan’s military and the RSF. The civil conflict, which began in April 2023, has so far left more than 20,000 people dead and displaced 14 million others, according to the United Nations and local sources. However, separate estimates from researchers at U.S. universities suggest the real death toll may be as high as 130,000.

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