At least eight women were killed on Wednesday in a drone strike near Kadugli, the capital of Sudan’s South Kordofan state, as they attempted to flee the besieged city. Eyewitnesses told AFP that the attack occurred in Kurkal, about 15 kilometers north of Kadugli, an area under army control but surrounded for 18 months by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The city has become a new flashpoint in Sudan’s prolonged civil war.

Following the RSF’s capture of the army’s last base in Darfur in October, the group shifted its focus to resource-rich Kordofan, a strategic link between army-held Khartoum and RSF-controlled western regions. Communications in the area remain cut off, and the UN recently declared famine in Kadugli. According to the World Food Programme, the humanitarian situation is “extremely dire,” with residents scavenging for food in forests and facing grave risks while trying to escape.

The latest attack underscores the intensifying conflict and the growing civilian toll, as aid agencies warn that access and security conditions continue to deteriorate across Sudan’s war zones.