At least 175 people have been killed and dozens injured following a series of airstrikes in Sudan’s capital on Monday and Tuesday. The attacks have been attributed to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been engaged in a 20-month conflict with Sudan’s army. The conflict, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands, has become increasingly bloody, with the army stepping up air attacks in areas under the RSF control and the paramilitary forces staging raids and carrying out intense artillery strikes.
The deadliest strike occurred Monday in Kabkabiya, a town 180 km west of North Darfur, where an airstrike on a crowded market claimed at least 100 civilian lives, including women and children, according to a rights group.
The army denied responsibility for the attack, insisting that it had the right to target any location used by the RSF for military purposes, according to Reuters news agency.
In another incident, a shell fired at a passenger bus killed all 22 people on board, described as a “massacre” by Khartoum Governor Ahmed Othman Hamza.
Additionally, at least 65 people were killed and 100 injured during an RSF incursion in Omdurman, an area controlled by the Sudanese army, according to Hamza.
The clashes on Tuesday marked some of the most violent fighting this year between forces led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Sudan has been mired in civil war since 2023, when conflict erupted between the military and the RSF, a paramilitary group with roots in Darfur’s Janjaweed militia. The war has killed at least 24,000 people and displaced millions, though it has received limited global attention compared to conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
The war in Sudan broke out in April 2023 amid a power tussle between the army and the RSF before a planned transition to civilian rule.
The two sides have been accused of committing abuses that may amount to war crimes, including attacking civilians, according to a United Nations fact-finding mission in September.
