AIRSTRIKE ON SUDAN MARKET KILLS 40, INJURES DOZENS

Sun 10 September 2023:

At least 40 people were killed in an airstrike on a marketplace in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Sunday, according to an activist group, reports Anadolu Agency.

In a statement, the Emergency Room group said the attack targeted an open market in Mayo neighborhood in South Khartoum.

The group posted footage on social media showing bodies wrapped in white sheets in an open yard at the hospital.

Reporting from Khartoum, Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said the drone attack was carried out by the Sudanese army.

She said it is not clear whether all the victims were civilians, but “there is a dire need for medical assistance for those who have been injured”.

Indiscriminate shelling and air attacks by both factions have become common in Sudan’s war, which has reduced the greater Khartoum area to a battleground.

The attack came amid heavy fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group in the capital.

For its part, the RSF accused the army of carrying out an airstrike in Mayo neighborhood.

There was no comment from the military on the accusation.

Sudan has been rocked by violence since mid-April, when tensions between the country’s military, led by al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, burst into open fighting.

The clashes have since spread to several parts of the country. In the greater Khartoum area, which includes the cities of Khartoum, Omdurman and Khartoum North (Bahri), RSF troops have commandeered civilian homes and turned them into operational bases.

The military responded by bombing residential areas, rights groups and activists say.

Based on August figures from the UN, the conflict has killed more than 4,000 people. However, the real toll is almost certainly much higher, doctors and activists say.

The number of internally displaced has nearly doubled since mid-April to reach at least 7.1 million people, according to the UN refugee agency. Another 1.1 million are refugees in neighbouring countries.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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