Sudan talks canceled after shooting of child protesters in school uniforms.

Sudanese protest leaders have canceled planned talks with the country’s ruling generals as they visited a town where at least five school children were shot dead on Monday.

The head of Sudan’s ruling military council had earlier said there must be immediate accountability over the shooting, state news agency SUNA reported, and the United Nations has called for an investigation into what protesters said was a “massacre.

The children died when security forces opened fire on a protest in El-Obeid in central Sudan. The oldest was 16, the youngest 14, locals said.

Witnesses described how militia from the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fired on teenagers, many of whom were wearing school uniforms and carrying school bags, as they marched peacefully in protest at shortages of water, electricity and public transport in El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state. There were also reports of at least one adult casualty.

The shooting was one of the bloodiest incidents in Sudan since the RSF killed more than 120 people at a protest site in Khartoum, the capital, last month. The government claims far fewer died in that attack.

The RSF is commanded by Mohammed Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is seen as the most powerful of the military rulers in charge of Sudan since the ousting of President Omar al-Bashir in April.

The deaths on Monday prompted further protests in El-Obeid, where markets were shut, schools suspended and a curfew was imposed. Authorities announced a state of emergency in the state and shut down internet access. The army was deployed in the city.

There were also demonstrations in Khartoum, Omdurman, and Port Sudan as news of the shooting spread.

There was no immediate statement from the state security services or from Sudan’s military leaders.

Opposition activists have kept up their demonstrations since April, pressing for the military to speed up the move to civilian rule and calling for justice for the people killed last month in Khartoum.

The shootings have been condemned by the United Nations and some international powers.