RIGHTS GROUP BLAMES SUDANESE ARMY FOR NYALA MARKET STRIKE

Emergency Lawyers said a drone strike killed more than 100 people and injured 113 at Tanqong Market in Nyala, Sudan, on Monday evening. The rights group blamed the Sudanese Armed Forces and called for an independent investigation. It said many of those killed were women and children. The strike hit the market in Nyala’s Dumaya neighbourhood, in South Darfur. Médecins Sans Frontières said a second strike hit a civilian neighbourhood.

Médecins Sans Frontières said Nyala Teaching Hospital, which it supports, received 36 bodies and treated more than 150 wounded patients after the strike. Those figures count people who reached the hospital; the full death toll remains unestablished. Witnesses said Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters had gathered at the market that evening. A cigarette vendor said a drone struck at about 8pm and killed fighters and women selling food. Another witness estimated that about 14 civilians died alongside fighters, giving a different account of the civilian toll from Emergency Lawyers.

The RSF controls Nyala and has fought Sudan’s army since April 2023, following a power struggle between the two forces. Witnesses said civilian vendors at the market sold goods to RSF fighters. Mubarak Bekheit, an aid worker in Darfur, said on Wednesday that people remained missing and that rescuers had yet to recover some bodies from nearby homes. “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,” he said. Emergency Lawyers has called for an independent investigation into the strike.