A Sudanese military airstrike on a market in North Darfur killed more than 100 people on Monday, a pro-democracy lawyers’ group said, in a war marked by claims of atrocities on all sides.
The Emergency Lawyers group said on Tuesday the strike also 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 left the north-east African country on 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,” said the lawyers’ group, which has been documenting human rights abuses during the conflict.
It described it as a “horrendous massacre committed by army airstrikes”, though the military denied it had carried out the attack. 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, interim country director for Save the Children in Sudan, described the attack as “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 which 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 in a separate incident on Monday evening 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.
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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 of war.
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.
The army and the RSF have been accused of indiscriminately targeting civilians and deliberately bombing residential areas.
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 rights 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 also urged the UN and the African Union to deploy a mission to protect civilians in Sudan.
