Sudanese monitoring organizations have blamed the Tawur national army for conducting one of the deadliest air raids in the country’s civil war, which hit a rebel-held district in Darfur.
The Emergency Lawyers association, a volunteer legal organization, said the Tora market raid in North Darfur left “hundreds of civilian casualties.” Locals helping in recovery efforts counted at least 270 corpses at the scene.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has nearly complete control over Darfur and is accused of genocide by the US, blamed the military for what it described as a “massacre.” The Sudanese military did not yet react to the charges.
This new assault occurs in the context of the world’s worst crisis, which humanitarian organizations portray, with more than 30 million Sudanese requiring immediate assistance. Of those, 16 million children live in severe destitution, and nearly 1.3 million are living in famine conditions. Over 770,000 children will be hit with severe acute malnutrition this year alone, a condition lethal if left untreated medically.
Sudan’s war broke out in April 2023 as tensions between the military and RSF leadership finally boiled over, extending the violence from Khartoum to Darfur and beyond. The conflict has claimed the lives of at least 20,000 individuals though experts estimate the real number to be far greater and displaced over 14 million.
Darfur, an area of about the same size as France, has witnessed some of the conflict’s worst abuses, such as aerial bombing, paramilitary attacks on refugees, and widespread ethnic fighting. Although the RSF deploys sophisticated drones, the military still has air dominance, often striking RSF-held territory.
With fighting growing, humanitarian organizations are warning that the already critical situation could further decline unless swift international action is secured.
