A Sudanese military airstrike on a market in North Darfur has killed more than 100 people, a pro-democracy lawyers’ group said, amid a war marked by claims of atrocities on all sides.
The Emergency Lawyers group said the strike on Monday injured hundreds in Kabkabiya, a town about 110 miles (180km) west of El Fasher, the state capital that has been under siege from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since May.
Tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced in a 20-month war between the RSF and Sudan’s army that has driven the north-east African country to the brink of famine, according to aid agencies.
“The airstrike took place on the town’s weekly market day, where residents from various nearby villages had gathered to shop, resulting in the death of more than 100 people and injury of hundreds, including women and children,” the lawyers’ group, which has been documenting human rights abuses during the conflict, said on Tuesday.
It described it as a “horrendous massacre committed by army airstrikes”, though the military denied responsibility. The army said in a statement the accusations were “lies” spread by political parties backing the RSF, adding it would continue “exercising its legitimate right to defend the country”.
In footage sent to Agence France-Presse purporting to show the aftermath of Monday’s strike, people were seen sifting through rubble as the charred remains of children lay on scorched ground.
The footage was supplied by a civil society group, the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees, and AFP has not been able to verify its accuracy.
Mohamed Abdiladif, the interim country director for Save the Children in Sudan, said the attack was “unacceptable”, especially because it took place on a market day when families would be buying food supplies.
“No place is safe now for children sheltering from ongoing conflict in North Darfur,” he said, noting ongoing attacks in Zamzam camp, a major refugee camp in the state that houses about 500,000 displaced people, and surrounding areas.
He called on the warring parties to protect markets, schools, hospitals and other vital public infrastructure “not just as a moral obligation, but a vital step towards ensuring a stable, peaceful, and prosperous future for Sudan”.
The lawyers’ group said that in a separate incident on Monday three neighbourhoods were hit with barrel bombs in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, without reporting casualties.
Darfur, a region the size of France, is home to about a quarter of Sudan’s population, but more than half of its 10 million people are displaced.
A UN-backed report in July said famine had taken hold in Zamzam camp after a months-long RSF siege disabled nearly all trade and aid access. Nearly 26 million people – about half the population – face the threat of starvation nationwide, with both sides accused of using hunger as a weapon.
The lawyers’ group said it condemned “in the strongest terms the horrendous massacres committed by army airstrikes” in Kabkabiya.
The group flagged another incident in North Kordofan state in which a drone that had crashed on 26 November exploded on Monday evening, killing six people.
It said recent strikes across Sudan were part of an “escalation campaign … deliberately concentrated on densely populated residential areas”, contradicting claims by warring parties that they only target military objectives.
On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch accused the RSF and allied Arab militias of carrying out numerous abuses against civilians in South Kordofan state from December 2023 to March 2024.
The organisation accused the groups of “war crimes” including “killings, rapes, and abductions of ethnic Nuba residents, as well as the looting and destruction of homes”.
The group urged the UN and the African Union to deploy a mission to protect civilians.
Elsewhere paramilitary shelling of a bus in the capital, Khartoum, killed at least 15 people on Tuesday, a medical source said.
Al-Nao hospital, one of the last facilities admitting patients in the area, also received 45 injured people from different areas of Omdurman city in greater Khartoum, the source said, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal.
“We haven’t seen bombing this intense in six months,” one witness to the attack on the bus said, also requesting anonymity.
Another witness reported shelling from the Wadi Seidna army base in northern Omdurman towards RSF positions in western Omdurman and across the river in Khartoum North.
Most of Omdurman is under army control, while the RSF holds Khartoum North, just across the Nile River.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
