Drone strikes on Darfur market killed more than 100, rights group says

Military drone strikes in Darfur, in southwestern Sudan, killed more than 100 people, according to a rights group, which says most of the victims were women and children. Witnesses said the attack struck a busy city market frequented by paramilitary fighters.

Emergency Lawyers, a rights group tracking violence, put the toll from Monday's attacks at more than 100 dead and 113 wounded.

The attack took place in Nyala, the South Darfur city that serves as the de facto capital of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). 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.

A cigarette vendor told the Associated Press news agency on Wednesday that hundreds of RSF fighters had gathered at the market on the evening of the attack. He said he moved his stall between gatherings of the fighters to sell cigarettes, and that a drone struck around 8pm (18:00 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 14 civilians, including women and children, were also killed, most of them women selling tea and food. Both witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

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 "150 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 21 dead and more than 40 wounded, saying shelling caused most of the deaths. The group said the statement was delayed given the challenges of accessing field documentation sources within Nyala amid ongoing military operations and security constraints.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said a second strike hit a civilian neighbourhood after the market attack. MSF said a hospital it supports in Nyala received 36 bodies in the hours after the strike, 21 of them wearing civilian clothing, and that its teams saw more than 150 wounded in the emergency room. "Markets, homes, and key civilian infrastructure are not targets," the group said. "All parties to the conflict must protect civilians."

Drone strikes have become the leading cause of civilian deaths in Sudan, the United Nations has reported, in a war between the RSF and the army now in its fourth year that has created severe poverty, food shortages and the world's worst displacement crisis.