Drone strikes on Sudan markets kill 33: medical source

KHARTOUM - Drone strikes on markets in paramilitary-controlled towns in the Kordofan region killed 33 people Sunday, while a strike in Darfur resulted in a raging oil fire, sources told AFP.

Two of the attacks were on small towns in West Kordofan state -- part of the resource-rich Kordofan region, currently the fiercest battlefront in the nearly three-year war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

In RSF-controlled Abu Zabad and Wad Banda, a combined 33 people were killed and 59 injured, according to a doctor at Abu Zabad hospital, where the victims were brought.

Using a satellite internet connection to circumvent a communications blackout, Abu Zabad resident Hamad Abdullah said he helped bury 20 people.

"Four of them were my relatives who worked in the market," he told AFP, blaming the army for the strike.

A military source denied the accusations, telling AFP that the "armed forces do not bombard civilian areas".

Since war broke out in April 2023, both sides have been accused of war crimes including targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.

Air strikes by the army, carried out first by fighter jets and then drones, have killed dozens of civilians at a time.

Across state lines, in the East Darfur state capital of El-Daein, another drone strike targeted the local market, according to two eyewitnesses.

It hit oil barrels being sold at the market, causing a fire "that is still raging four hours after the drone hit," one resident said, requesting anonymity for their safety.

The RSF accused the army of carrying out the strike.

Both West Kordofan and East Darfur are controlled by the RSF, who dominate Sudan's west and much of the south, while the army holds the centre, east and north.

Both sides have relied on drone warfare, leaving massive civilian casualties and drawing frequent condemnation from the United Nations.

Last week, clashes in the South Kordofan city of Dilling killed at least 28 people and injured 60 more, a medical source said.

On Sunday, one of the injured, a Red Crescent volunteer who was at the Dilling Hospital when it was shelled, died of her wounds.

Hospitals have repeatedly been targeted throughout the war.

By December, over 1,800 people had been killed in attacks on health facilities since the start of the war, including 173 health workers, according to the United Nations.

Across the country, fighting has killed tens of thousands and more than 11 million people have been driven from their homes.

The fighting has fuelled what the UN describes as the world's largest displacement and hunger crises, where over half the population is in need of humanitarian aid.