PORT SUDAN: An airstrike carried out by Sudanese military forces on Saturday killed 23 civilians and wounded more than 40 others in a marketplace in southern Khartoum, a Sudanese network of volunteer rescuers said on Sunday.
The market, located near one of the main camps in the Sudanese capital, has become a flashpoint for intense fighting between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The youth-led Emergency Response Rooms, a network of volunteer rescuers, confirmed the death toll in a Facebook post, stating, “Twenty-three people were confirmed dead and more than 40 others wounded” after military airstrikes targeted the main market on Saturday afternoon.
The injured were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment, but the death toll is expected to rise as heavy clashes continue in the war-torn city.
Fierce fighting has gripped Khartoum since Friday, with the military launching air strikes on the city’s centre and southern districts, most of which are controlled by the RSF. The military is advancing from Omdurman, a neighboring city, where clashes also erupted on Saturday.
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The conflict between Sudan’s army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, erupted in April 2023. Since then, the RSF has largely pushed the army out of Khartoum, establishing control over much of the city.
The war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and created a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed at least 20,000 deaths in the ongoing conflict, although independent estimates suggest the death toll could be as high as 150,000.
The United Nations has also warned that the war has triggered the largest displacement crisis globally, with more than 10 million Sudanese forced to flee their homes. This figure represents roughly one-fifth of the country’s population.
The UN declared a famine in August at the Zamzam refugee camp near El-Fasher.
In Darfur, the RSF has seized nearly all of the region and has extended its control into Sudan’s agricultural heartland and the southeast.
Meanwhile, the government loyal to the army, led by al-Burhan, is based in Port Sudan along the Red Sea coast, where the army has maintained its grip on power.
