Clashes in southern Sudan leave at least 21 dead, medical group says

A doctors' group says at least 21 people, including women and children, have been killed in southern SudanCAIRO -- Clashes in southern Sudan have killed at least 21 people, including women and children, a doctors' group said Friday. Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks violence throughout the war in Sudan, said that the rebel group Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, or SPLM-N, launched an attack on Thursday in the areas of Debi and Luweri in the town of Kauda in South Kordofan.Rebel leader Abdel Aziz al-Hilu has aligned his fighters with the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which has been battling the Sudanese military since 2023. The war killed at least 59,000 people, displaced some 13 million and pushed parts of the country into famine.Al-Hilu’s group has been active in South Kordofan and joined a local government set up by the RSF. The group is a breakaway faction of the SPLM, the ruling party of neighboring South Sudan. Thursday's attack was part of clashes that erupted between SPLM-N and the Otoro tribe, a minority group in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan. The fighting came despite a ceasefire initiative backed by the RSF last month. The medical group sai...