At least 40 civilians were killed and dozens injured in an airstrike by the army on a market in southern Khartoum, a local volunteer group has said, marking the largest single-incident death toll since the war in Sudan began in April.
Air and artillery strikes in residential areas have intensified as the war between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) nears the five-month mark with neither side declaring victory or showing any concrete signs of pursuing mediation.
Drones carried out a series of airstrikes on Sunday morning on southern Khartoum, a large district of the city occupied mainly by the RSF, a witness who saw the attack told Reuters, asking not to be identified for security reasons.
Images shared by a body of local volunteers called the Southern Khartoum Emergency Room (SKER) showed many women and men injured and what appeared to be bodies covered in cloth.
Residents of the area tend to be day workers who, cut off from jobs, are too poor to afford the cost of escaping from the capital.
Mohamed Abdallah, a spokesperson for the SKER, which tries to provide medical and other services, said the injured had to be transported on rickshaws and donkey carts.
In a statement, the RSF accused the Sudanese army of carrying out the attack and other strikes. The Sudanese army denied responsibility and blamed the RSF.
“We only aim our attacks at the enemy’s groupings and stations in different areas,” Brig Gen Nabil Abdallah told Reuters.
The RSF has fanned out across residential areas throughout Khartoum and neighbouring Bahri and Omdurman, but the army has used heavy artillery and airstrikes to try to push it back, resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties.
Strikes in western Omdurman last week killed at least 51 people over two days. With most hospitals closed and no functioning local government, volunteers struggle to document the true number of those killed.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which operates Bashair hospital in southern Khartoum, said on X that the crowded Gorro market was hit at 7am, and that at least 60 people had been wounded. Doctors had stopped trying to count as they operated.
“Khartoum has been at war for almost six months. But still, the volunteers … are shocked and overwhelmed by the scale of horror that struck the city today,” MSF’s emergency coordinator, Marie Burton, said.
SKER said in a statement on Friday that the hospital, one of few still operating, was threatened with closure because supplies were running out and staff were struggling to reach it.
Conflict between the army and the RSF broke out on 15 April, after tensions arose over integration of their troops in a new transition to democracy. Several countries have launched mediation efforts, but none has succeeded in bringing a halt to the fighting.