Strikes on Darfur market in Sudan killed more than ۱۰۰, rights group says

Women and children killed as witnesses say attack struck civilian shopkeepers, RSF forces.

Military drone strikes in southwestern Sudan’s Darfur that killed more than ۱۰۰ people – mostly women and children – earlier this week targeted a busy city market frequented by paramilitary fighters, witnesses said.

Emergency Lawyers, a rights group tracking violence, put the toll from Monday’s attacks at more than ۱۰۰ dead and ۱۱۳ wounded.

While Emergency Lawyers reported that most of the victims were women and children, witnesses said on Wednesday that multiple civilian vendors who sold goods to paramilitary fighters were among those killed in the attack in Nyala, the South Darfur city that serves as the de facto capital of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The war between the RSF and the army, now in its fourth year, has created severe poverty, food shortages and the world’s worst displacement crisis.

A cigarette vendor told the Associated Press news agency on Wednesday that hundreds of RSF fighters gathered at the market on the evening of the attack. He said that he moved his stall between gatherings of the paramilitary fighters to sell cigarettes and that a drone struck around ۸pm (۱۸:۰۰ GMT), killing dozens of fighters and women selling food.

Another witness told the AP that the explosion was massive and killed many fighters. He estimated that around ۱۴ civilians, including women and children, were also killed, most of them women selling tea and food.

Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

‘Constant fear of further bombardment’

Mubarak Bekheit, an aid worker in Darfur, said on Wednesday that many people remained missing and some bodies had yet to be recovered from homes in the area after the strike hit a civilian neighbourhood.

“I personally know that war has no morality, but the reality we witness every day is that civilians are the ones paying the highest price. They lose their lives, their loved ones, and their homes, while living under the constant fear of further bombardment,” he said.

Mohamed Didan, the official spokesperson for the Special Operations Forces fighting with the army, wrote on Facebook that more than “۱۵۰ militia recruits” were killed at the Dumaya camp, west of Nyala, in what he described as a “precise and targeted air strike”.

Casualty figures from Monday’s attack are unconfirmed and could not be independently verified amid limited information from the city. Sudan Doctors Network, another group that tracks violence, issued a statement on Wednesday preliminarily reporting ۲۱ dead and more than ۴۰ wounded, saying shelling caused most of the deaths.

“The release of this statement was delayed … given the challenges of accessing field documentation sources within Nyala amid ongoing active military operations and security constraints that hinder efforts to monitor and verify the conditions of victims and the injured,” the group said.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said that a second strike hit a civilian neighbourhood after the market attack. MSF said a hospital it supports in Nyala received ۳۶ bodies in the hours after the strike, ۲۱ of them wearing civilian clothing, and that its teams saw more than ۱۵۰ wounded in the emergency room.

MSF called the strikes “appalling”.

“Markets, homes, and key civilian infrastructure are not targets,” the group said in a statement. “All parties to the conflict must protect civilians.”

Drone strikes have become the leading cause of civilian deaths in Sudan, the United Nations reported, in a war that has pushed parts of the country into famine. In RSF-controlled Nyala, the share of children seeking treatment for severe acute malnutrition more than doubled between January and August, from ۵ to ۱۱ percent, according to UN estimates released earlier this month.