A drone strike hit two markets in paramilitary-controlled towns in southwestern Sudan, killing 33 people, a medical source said on Sunday.
The attacks targeted the Abu Zabad and Wad Banda markets in West Kordofan state, part of the resource-rich Kordofan region, which is currently the fiercest battleground in the nearly three-year war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
UN warns of continued deadly drone attacks on civilians in Sudan’s Kordofan
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A doctor at Abu Zabad Hospital, one of the few medical centers still serving the area, said two drones attacked the markets on Saturday, wounding 59 people.
Speaking over a Starlink connection and requesting anonymity, the doctor said 30 of the injured are still receiving treatment. The two cities are approximately 15 kilometers (9 miles) apart.
A resident of the city of Abu Zabad, Hamad Abdullah, said he helped bury 20 people on Saturday after what he described as an army drone attack on the city’s market.
“Four of them were my relatives who worked in the market,” he said.
A military source rejected the accusations and stated that “the armed forces do not bomb civilian areas.”
“This is a baseless lie. We only attacked the rebels, their equipment and their weapons depots,” said the source, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to brief the media. Since the war broke out in April 2023, both sides have been accused of war crimes, including attacks on civilians and indiscriminate shelling of residential areas.
See more51 people have died in the last 24 hours in the Sudanese region of Kordofan
The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced more than 11 million and fueled what the United Nations describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
