An air strike by the army on a Market in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum has left at least 40 civilians dead and over 60 injured on Sunday September 10, Southern Khartoum Emergency Room (SKER) reported.
“At about 7:15 am (0515 GMT), military aircraft bombarded the Qouro market area,” the local volunteer group said.
This marks the largest number of persons killed in a single incident, since the deadly clash between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) rival factions of the military government of Sudan.
The nearly five-month war has raged on since 15 April 2023 promises no sign of a ceasefire from neither end, as series of air strikes from the army continue to intensify on a daily basis.
One of the residents who witnessed the incident in the southern Khartoum market, reportedly occupied mainly by the RSF, said the air strike, and indeed many others before it were often carried out by drones.
SKER, a volunteer group shared images of injured women and men, as well as seemingly liveless bodies covered in clothing.
Meanwhile, both SAF and the RSF have accused each other of being responsible for the strike, and series of other attacks in the country, and both have vehemently denied any involvement in the incident(s).
The Sudan crisis has taken the lives of over 7,500 persons, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, while the United Nations reports that over five million people have fled their homes.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk in August, warned that the “disastrous, senseless war in Sudan, born out of a wanton drive for power, has resulted in thousands of deaths, the destruction of family homes, schools, hospitals and other essential services, massive displacement, as well as sexual violence, in acts which may amount to war crimes”.
The UNHCR is seeking $1 billion to aid 1.8 million Sudan refugees fleeing the violence, doubling their May estimate.
Civilians, including women, children and the elderly continue to bear the brunt of this unending battle for supremacy.
The Sudanese people continue to sink deeper into an unimaginable state of humanitarian crisis.