Strikes on Darfur market in Sudan killed more than 100, rights group says

What the report says

A rights group and witnesses say military drone strikes in Sudan’s Darfur region killed more than 100 people in and around a market in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur and a stronghold of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Al Jazeera reported that the attack took place on Monday and that many of those killed were women and children, while civilians who sold food and other goods at the market were also among the dead.

Emergency Lawyers, a group that monitors abuses, said at least 100 people were killed and 113 injured. Other accounts from witnesses and local organizations varied, reflecting the difficulty of verifying figures in an active conflict zone. One witness told the Associated Press that RSF fighters had gathered at the market before the strike, while another described a large explosion and said civilians, including women and children, were among the victims. Sudan Doctors Network gave a lower preliminary toll, and said shelling caused most deaths.

Doctors Without Borders said a hospital it supports in Nyala received dozens of bodies and treated more than 150 wounded, and described the strike as appalling. The reported attack adds to a wider pattern of drone warfare in Sudan’s nearly four-year conflict between the army and the RSF, a war that has driven mass displacement, hunger and growing civilian casualties. The UN has warned that drone strikes are increasingly causing deaths in the country, including in RSF-held areas such as Nyala.