A Sudanese military air strike on a market in a town in North Darfur killed more than 100 people and wounded hundreds on Monday, a pro-democracy lawyers’ group said Tuesday.
The Emergency Lawyers said Monday’s air strike also left hundreds injured in Kabkabiya, a town about 180 kilometres (112 miles) 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 northeast African country on the brink of famine, according to aid agencies.
“The air strike 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.
The lawyers said they “condemn in the strongest terms the horrendous massacres committed by army air strikes” in Kabkabiya.
In footage sent to AFP purporting to show 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 civil society group the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees and AFP has not been able to verify its accuracy.
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 around a quarter of Sudan’s population but more than half of its 10 million are displaced.
A UN-backed report in July said famine had taken hold in a major refugee camp in North Darfur after a months-long RSF siege disabled nearly all trade and aid access.
In a separate incident, a drone that had crashed in central Sudan’s North Kordofan on November 26 exploded on Monday evening, killing six people, including children, and leaving three others seriously injured, the lawyers said.
In Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, a series of “indiscriminate airstrikes” also targeted three neighborhoods with barrel bombs, they added.
The attacks are part of “an ongoing escalation campaign, contradicting claims that the air strikes target only military objectives as the raids are deliberately concentrated on densely populated residential areas,” the lawyers said in a statement.
Both the army and the RSF have been accused of targeting civilians and deliberately bombing residential areas.
Tens of thousands have been killed in the war and over 11 million displaced, creating what the United Nations describes as the world’s largest displacement crisis.
