KHARTOUM: At least 40 people, all civilians, were killed in an air strike in the western Darfur region of war-torn Sudan on Wednesday, AFP news agency reported, citing a medical source, as Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan embarked on a visit to Turkey.
“At least 40 civilians have been killed in an air raid that targeted two markets and several neighbourhoods of the city,” the medical source told AFP news agency from a hospital in Nyala area, the capital of South Darfur region.
Earlier, witnesses in the area reported air strikes targeting two markets and causing civilian casualties in the second-biggest city of Sudan, where fighting escalated last month.
The vast region of Darfur — home to a quarter of the population of Sudan — has witnessed some of the worst fighting in the war between Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Burhan’s former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, and the regular army.
According to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, around 7,500 people have been killed since April 15.
Air Strikes Kill 17 in Omdurman Region of Sudan
The latest attack came a day after 17 civilians were killed in RSF shelling in Omdurman region. Witnesses in the area described the attack as paramilitaries shelling.
According to Volker Turk, United Nations human rights chief, on Sunday, around 51 people were killed and several injured in air strikes in southern Khartoum.
The RSF fighters continue to dominate Khartoum’s streets, while the armed forces control the skies over the city.
The army chief’s visit to Turkey is his fifth visit abroad since late August as he competes for legitimacy in a distressing power struggle with his former subordinate.
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who has been the head of state since he led a 2021 military coup in collaboration with Daglo, will hold negotiations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on “bilateral ties and ways to further strengthen them”, said the army chief’s office.
