More than 100 people have been killed in military drone strikes on a busy market in Nyala, a town in Sudan's Darfur region, the rights group Emergency Lawyers said. The group said another 113 people were wounded in the attacks on Monday night, most of them women and children.
Nyala is the de facto capital of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, known as RSF. Witnesses said the market was also frequented by fighters from the group. A cigarette vendor told The Associated Press that hundreds of fighters had gathered there that evening. He said the drone struck at around 8pm local time, killing fighters and women selling food.
Another witness described the blast as huge. He put the civilian casualties at around 14, including women and children, most of whom were selling tea and food. The two witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Variegated casualty figures
The death toll has not been independently confirmed due to limited access to Nyala and ongoing fighting. The Sudanese Doctors Network reported earlier that 21 people had died and more than 40 were injured, citing shelling as the main cause of the deaths.
The organization said it had delayed its announcement due to difficulties in accessing documents and sources on the ground, as well as security concerns that prevented verification of the condition of the dead and wounded.
Doctors Without Borders reported that the strike on the market was followed by an attack on a civilian neighborhood. A hospital in Nyala, which the organization supports, received 36 bodies in the hours after the attack, 21 of whom were in civilian clothes. Medical teams saw more than 150 wounded in the emergency room.
Army claims to have hit militants
Mohamed Didan, a spokesman for the Special Operations Forces, which is fighting alongside the Sudanese army, said a “precise and targeted airstrike” on a camp west of Nyala killed more than 150 paramilitary recruits.
Aid worker Mubarak Bekhite said many people were still missing and some bodies had not been recovered from homes in the area. “Civilians are paying the highest price.” "They are losing their lives, their loved ones and their homes, while living in constant fear of more bombings," he said.
The war between RSF and the Sudanese army is now in its fourth year and has led to severe poverty, food shortages and the world's largest displacement crisis. According to the UN, drone strikes are now the leading cause of civilian deaths in Sudan. In RSF-controlled Nyala, the proportion of children treated for severe acute malnutrition increased from 5 to 11 percent between January and August.
Sources: aljazeera.com