A drone attack on an open market has killed at least 43 people in Sudan as rival troops battle

CAIRO, Sept 11 (AP) A drone attack on Sunday on an open market south of Sudan’s capital,
Khartoum, killed at least 43 people, activists and a medical group said, as the military and a powerful
rival paramilitary group battle for control of the country.
More than 55 others were wounded in the attack in Khartoum’s May neighbourhood, where
paramilitary forces battling the military were heavily deployed, the Sudan Doctors’ Union said in a
statement. The casualties were taken to Bashair University Hospital.
The Resistance Committees, an activist group that helps organize humanitarian assistance, posted
footage on social media showing bodies wrapped in white sheets in an open yard at the hospital.
Sudan has been rocked by violence since mid-April, when tensions between the country’s military,
led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen.
Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, burst into open fighting.
About 500 children have died from hunger in Sudan since fighting erupted in April, charity says
The RSF blamed the military’s air force for Sunday’s attack, though it was not immediately possible
to independently verify the claim. The military, meanwhile, said Sunday afternoon that it didn’t
target civilians, describing the RSF accusations as “false and misleading claims.”
Indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes by both factions are not uncommon in Sudan’s war, which has
made the Greater Khartoum area a battleground.
The conflict has since spread to several parts of the country. In the Greater Khartoum area, which
includes the cities of Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri, RSF troops have commandeered civilian
homes and turned them into operational bases. The military responded by bombing these
residential areas, rights groups and activists say.
In the western Darfur region — the scene of a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s — the conflict
has morphed into ethnic violence, with the RSF and allied Arab militias attacking ethnic African
groups, according to rights groups and the United Nations.
Fierce clashes ensued over the weekend in al-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province,
following an attack on a military facility by the RSF, local media reported.
Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, expressed concerns Sunday
about the clashes in al-Fasher. Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, the U.N. official called for
warring factions to stop fighting “so that humanitarians can bring in food, medicine and shelter
items to those who need them most.”
The war has killed more than 4,000 people, according to August figures from the United Nations.
However, the real toll is almost certainly much higher, doctors and activists say.
The number of internally displaced persons has nearly doubled since mid-April to reach at least 7.1
million people, according to the U.N. refugee agency. Another 1.1 million are refugees in
neighbouring countries, according to figures released last week by the International Organization for
Migration.
Chad received about 465,000 refugees, mostly from West Darfur province where the RSF and its
Arab militias launched scorched-earth attacks on non-Arab tribes in the provincial capital of Geneina
and its surrounding areas, according to the U.N. and rights groups.