Thirty percent of the region's health facilities have stopped functioning entirely.
In Sudan's Kordofan region, drone strikes have claimed at least 104 civilian lives since early December, including 43 children killed in a single blow to a kindergarten and hospital in Kalogi — a moment that distills the full horror of a civil war now entering its third year. The conflict, which began in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, has shifted its center of gravity eastward, overwhelming a health system already broken by displacement, cholera, and deliberate targeting of medical facilities. The world's largest humanitarian crisis deepens even as diplomats gather at its edges, searching for a language that might slow what violence has made self-sustaining.
- A single drone strike on a kindergarten and hospital in Kalogi killed 89 people in one ordinary morning, 43 of them children — a number that has become the symbol of a war with no regard for the smallest lives.
- The RSF's capture of a major military base in Babnusa unleashed a wave of aerial bombardment across Kordofan, killing peacekeepers, striking hospitals, and forcing more than 40,000 people to flee their homes.
- Cholera and dengue fever are spreading through a region where 30% of health facilities have gone dark, turning the slow violence of disease into a second front in a war that already kills faster than it can be counted.
- UN Secretary-General Guterres called the attacks 'horrific' and warned they may constitute war crimes, but condemnation has not interrupted the bombing — words and airstrikes exist, for now, in separate registers.
- On December 15, Sudan's military chief met with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, and Egypt and the United States jointly called for a ceasefire — diplomatic motion at the margins of a conflict that has killed over 40,000 and displaced 14 million.
Sudan's Kordofan region has become the new center of a civil war that refuses to end. Since early December, drone strikes have killed at least 104 civilians across the region, as fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces enters its third year with intensifying ferocity. The conflict, which once raged primarily in Darfur, has shifted east — and the toll is mounting faster than what remains of the health system can absorb.
The single deadliest moment came in Kalogi, South Kordofan, where a drone struck a kindergarten and hospital, killing 89 people — among them 43 children and eight women. The strike followed the RSF's capture of a major military base in Babnusa after a week of sustained combat, and it was not isolated. Wave after wave of aerial bombardment followed, each one deepening a humanitarian catastrophe already beyond measure.
The violence kills slowly as well as quickly. North Kordofan is now managing nearly 14,000 cholera cases and hundreds of dengue infections, while 30% of its health facilities have ceased to function. On December 13, six Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers were killed when drones struck their base in Kadugli. A day later, Dilling Military Hospital was hit. The Sudan Doctors Network described it as systematic targeting of medical institutions — a pattern UN human rights chief Volker Turk confirmed violates the laws of war.
More than 40,000 people have fled North Kordofan. Civilians remain trapped in besieged cities, unable to leave and increasingly unable to access care. In el-Fasher, researchers documented RSF forces killing civilians attempting to flee, then destroying evidence. The war has now killed more than 40,000 people by UN estimates — a figure aid organizations believe understates the true toll — and displaced over 14 million, making Sudan the world's largest humanitarian crisis for the third consecutive year.
Diplomatic motion has resumed at the edges of the catastrophe. Sudan's military chief met with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince on December 15, and Egypt and the United States jointly called for a comprehensive ceasefire the following day. Whether these overtures can interrupt a war that has become self-sustaining remains, for now, an open and agonizing question.
Sudan's Kordofan region has become a killing ground. Since early December, drone strikes have torn through the central expanse of the country, leaving at least 104 civilians dead as the civil war that began in April 2023 enters its third year with renewed ferocity. The violence marks a dangerous shift in the conflict's geography—the fighting that once consumed Darfur in the west has now moved east, and the toll is mounting faster than the fractured health system can absorb.
The deadliest single attack came on a day that should have been ordinary. A kindergarten and hospital in Kalogi, South Kordofan, took a direct hit. When the dust settled, 89 people lay dead: 43 of them children, eight women, and others whose names and ages will likely never be fully recorded. The strike was not an isolated incident. From early December through Friday, the region absorbed wave after wave of aerial bombardment, each one following the Rapid Support Forces' capture of a major military base in Babnusa after a week of grinding combat. The paramilitary group, known as the RSF, has become the dominant force in this phase of the war, and the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces blame them for the attacks—though the RSF has offered no public response to the accusations.
The violence has rippled outward in ways that kill slowly as well as quickly. North Kordofan's Health Minister reported that the state is now grappling with 13,609 cases of cholera and 730 infections of dengue fever. Thirty percent of the region's health facilities have stopped functioning entirely. On December 13, six Bangladeshi peacekeepers serving with the UN were killed when drones struck their base in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan. A day later, Dilling Military Hospital came under fire. The Sudan Doctors Network counted nine deaths and 17 injured, describing it as "systematic targeting of health institutions." UN officials gave different numbers—six dead, 12 wounded—but the pattern was unmistakable. Medical staff were among the casualties.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the drone attacks "horrific," and warned that strikes on peacekeepers "may constitute war crimes under international law." Volker Turk, the UN's human rights chief, said he was "alarmed by the further intensification in hostilities" and noted that targeting medical facilities violates the rules of war. The words carry weight, but they have not stopped the bombing.
The human displacement is staggering. More than 40,000 people have fled North Kordofan. In Heglig, where the RSF captured an oil facility before handing it to South Sudan's army under a tripartite agreement, nearly 2,000 people were forced to move to White Nile state. Civilians remain trapped in besieged cities including Kadugli and Dilling, unable to leave and increasingly unable to access medical care. Researchers at Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab documented something darker still: in el-Fasher, which the RSF seized in October, the group killed civilians trying to flee, then systematically destroyed evidence by burying, burning, and removing bodies.
The broader numbers are almost too large to hold in the mind. The war has killed more than 40,000 people according to UN figures, though aid organizations believe the true death toll is substantially higher. More than 14 million people have been displaced—the UN calls it the world's largest humanitarian crisis. Sudan has topped the International Rescue Committee's Emergency Watchlist for three consecutive years. Even as the violence accelerates, international efforts to broker peace have restarted. On December 15, the head of Sudan's armed forces met with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince to discuss working with the incoming Trump administration on a settlement. Egypt and the United States jointly called for a comprehensive ceasefire the following day. Whether those diplomatic overtures can slow the momentum of a war that has become self-sustaining remains an open question.
Citações Notáveis
Alarmed by the further intensification in hostilities and warned that targeting medical facilities violates international humanitarian law— UN human rights chief Volker Turk
Attacks on peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law— UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why has the fighting shifted from Darfur to Kordofan now, after nearly three years?
The RSF has been consolidating control. They took el-Fasher in October—the last major army stronghold in Darfur. Once that fell, the center of gravity moved east. Kordofan is vast, central, and strategically important. It's where the conflict is expanding, not contracting.
The kindergarten attack—89 people, 43 children. Is there any indication of why that facility was targeted?
The source doesn't say it was deliberately targeted. It was a kindergarten and hospital in the same location. Whether it was precision or indiscriminate bombing, the effect is the same: children died. The UN is calling it a war crime either way.
The health system is collapsing. Cholera outbreaks, dengue, 30 percent of facilities down. How does a region recover from that?
It doesn't, not quickly. You have disease spreading in a population that's already traumatized and displaced. Medical staff are being killed. The infrastructure to treat anything is disappearing. This is how wars kill people long after the fighting stops.
The RSF hasn't responded to accusations they're behind the attacks. Does that mean they didn't do it?
It means we don't know for certain. But the pattern—the timing, the locations, the intensity—all follows their military advances. The government blames them. The UN is investigating. Silence from the RSF is its own kind of answer.
What does the diplomatic activity mean? Is peace actually possible?
It's early. The Saudi meeting, the Egypt-US statement—these are opening moves. But the war has momentum now. Forty thousand dead, fourteen million displaced. The incentives to keep fighting may be stronger than the incentives to stop.