Sudan: At least 40 killed in drone attack on Khartoum market

Khartoum [Sudan], September 11 (ANI): At least 40 people were killed in a drone attack on an open market south of the Sudanese capital on Sunday, as the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) battle for control of the country, reported Al Jazeera.  The resistance committees and two healthcare workers at the Bashair University Hospital said that at least 70 others have been injured in Khartoum‘s Mayo neighbourhood.

Reportedly, the drone attack was carried out by the Sudanese Army, reported Al Jazeera, and added that it is not clear whether all the victims were civilians, but “there is a dire need for medical assistance for those who have been injured”. The casualties are being treated at the Bashair University Hospital, and many of them will require amputations, according to Al Jazeera. Moreover, the committees shared footage of bodies wrapped in white sheets in an open yard at the hospital on social media platforms. 

Indiscriminate shelling and air attacks by both factions have become common in Sudan‘s war which has reduced the greater Khartoum area to a battleground, Al Jazeera reported.  According to Al Jazeera, there are still no talks between the RSF and the Sudanese army even after five months of the conflict. 

Meanwhile, Sudanese Army head General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan stressed that the army welcomes initiatives including the Jeddah Forum but will not allow “any unacceptable interference”. Sudan has been witnessing violent attacks since mid-April as the tensions between Sudan‘s military, led by al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, burst into open fighting, reported Al Jazeera. Last month, the United Nations voiced grave concerns over the civil war in Sudan saying it is “spiralling out of control”, as more than a million people have left the country for neighboring nations since April as fighting between two warring factions has turned the country into a war zone, according to CNN.

In the middle of April, fierce fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), resulting in a large-scale exodus of refugees from the nation in East Africa, where allied militias have been charged with crimes against humanity after allegations of killing civilians, looting homes, and ethnic cleansing.

Four months into the war reported incidents of gender-based violence, including sexual assault, have surged by 50 per cent, according to the UN, piling pressure onto a healthcare system already depleted by insufficient aid, electricity shortages, and hospitals damaged by the fighting, CNN reported. (ANI)