At least 28 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a drone attack on a busy market in central Sudan’s Kordofan region, according to a rights group.
The attack occurred on Sunday in the al-Safiya market in the town of Sodari in North Kordofan state, Emergency Lawyers said in a statement on Monday.
The bombing happened when the market was packed with people, including women, children, and the elderly, exacerbating the humanitarian tragedy, the group added.
Regional Context
The area is currently the fiercest front line in the three-year-old war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Sodari, a remote town where desert trade routes cross, is 230km northwest of el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, which the RSF has been trying to encircle for months.
The Kordofan region has seen a surge in deadly drone attacks as both sides fight over the country’s vital east-west axis, which links the western RSF-held Darfur region to the army-controlled capital, Khartoum.
Official Statements
Emergency Lawyers said the drones targeting the market on Sunday belonged to the army, but two military officials denied the attack, saying the army does not target civilian infrastructure.
Aid groups say the true death toll in the conflict could be many times higher, as the fighting in vast and remote areas impedes access.
The United Nations human rights chief recently said that the Kordofan region remains “volatile and a focus of hostilities” as the warring parties vie for control of strategic areas.
International Response
The UN Human Rights Office issued a report saying that more than 6,000 people were killed over three days when the RSF unleashed “a wave of intense violence… shocking in its scale and brutality” in Darfur in late October.
The war has created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, with at least 40,000 people killed and 12 million displaced, according to the World Health Organization.
Source: Al Jazeera
