Strike on Darfur market killed civilians selling food to fighters, witnesses say

SHENDI, Sudan (AP) — Multiple civilian vendors were among the dozens reportedly killed in an attack on a market earlier this week in a poverty-stricken Darfur city in southwestern Sudan , where they had gathered to sell goods to paramilitary fighters, witnesses said Wednesday.

More than 100 people were killed and 113 others were wounded on Monday in a Sudanese military drone strike on a busy market in Nyala, the capital of the South Darfur province, said Emergency Lawyers, a rights group tracking violence. The group said many of those killed and wounded were women and children.

A cigarette vendor told The Associated Press by phone on Wednesday that hundreds of Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, fighters had gathered at the market that evening. He said that he moved his stall between gatherings of the paramilitary fighters to sell cigarettes and that a drone struck around 8 p.m., killing dozens of fighters and women selling food. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

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 airstrike.”

The latest attack came as part of the ongoing war between the army and the RSF, which broke out in April 2023, triggering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to aid organizations. The war has killed at least 59,000 people and displaced around 13 million people.

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.

The witness, who also spoke on condition of anonymity in fear of reprisals, said that civilians in Nyala often gather wherever fighters congregate to sell food and tea to earn a living amid widespread unemployment and few sources of income.

Final casualty figures from Monday’s attack in Nyala are unconfirmed amid limited information from the city.

Sudan Doctors Network, another group that tracks violence, gave a lower death toll and said that the attack was from shelling. It said in a statement Wednesday that at least 21 people were killed and more than 40 others were wounded. The toll includes civilians.

“The release of this statement was delayed due to difficulties in verifying the information, given the challenges of accessing field documentation sources within Nyala amid ongoing active military operations and security constraints that hinder efforts to monitor and verify the conditions of victims and the injured,” the group said. “The identities of all victims and the circumstances surrounding their presence at the site remain under verification, particularly in the absence of detailed and confirmed casualty lists.”

The AP couldn’t independently verify the figures of those killed and wounded.

Doctors Without Borders, which is also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, said Tuesday that 36 bodies arrived at its hospital in Nyala and reported seeing 150 wounded in an emergency room. It said 21 of them were wearing civilian clothing.

“Medical staff worked around the clock treating patients, including women and children. They’re all very shaken. The question everyone is asking is ‘Why are markets being targeted? The places where people need to access food, where a lot of civilians gather,’” said Dale Koninckx, MSF project coordinator in Nyala.

The war has pushed some parts of the country into famine . In RSF-controlled Nyala, the share of children seeking treatment for severe acute malnutrition more than doubled between January and August, from five to 11%, according to the latest figures by the United Nations released earlier this month.

Drone warfare has become the deadliest threat to civilians in Sudan’s conflict and both the military and the RSF are being supplied with drones by a number of countries in the Middle East and beyond, experts previously said.

Mubarak Bekheit, an aid worker in Darfur, told the AP by phone 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 neighborhood.

“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.

Fatma Khaled reported from Cairo.