AN ATTACK by Sudanese paramilitaries and their allies in the central region of Kordofan killed at least 14 people, including five children and two women, a medical group said Sunday.

At least 23 others were reportedly wounded in the attack.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allies in the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North launched a major offensive on Saturday on Dilling, the capital of South Kordofan province. 

The military, which recently broke the RSF siege on the city, said it thwarted the attack.

The Sudan Doctors Network (SDN), a group tracking the war, said the RSF and their allies shelled residential areas in the city amid dire humanitarian conditions. 

Dilling experienced famine conditions after more than two years of siege under the RSF during which the paramilitaries cut off supplies and frequently bombed the area. 

The SDN warned of a possible “catastrophic scenario” developing like the one in the Darfur city of el-Fasher. The RSF invaded that area in October in an attack that United Nations-commissioned experts said bore “hallmarks of genocide.”

More than 6,000 people were killed over three days in el-Fasher when the RSF unleashed “a wave of intense violence … shocking in its scale and brutality,” according to a report from the UN Human Rights Office.

Sudan slid into chaos in April 2023 when a power struggle between the Egypt- and Saudi Arabia-backed military and the United Arab Emirates-supported RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE all deny involvement in the war that has killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures.

Aid groups say that the true number could be many times higher.

The war has been marked by atrocities including mass killings, gang rapes and other crimes, that have been being investigated by the International Criminal Court as potential war crimes and crimes against humanity.