Drone attack near market kills 80 in Sudan

A man stands in a hole filled with drone components in El Obeid, Sudan, in March. There has been an escalation in the use of drones in the war. Photograph: Los Angeles Times/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenA man stands in a hole filled with drone components in El Obeid, Sudan, in March.

Prefer the Guardian on GoogleA drone strike near a market in southern Sudan on Sunday evening killed 80 people, mostly commuters catching rides home.

Ahmed Wadi, a witness, said the attack in the town of al-Dibab in West Kordofan state left “50 bodies who I helped bury, one of them my own brother Mohamed”.

Usando uma conexão de internet por satélite para contornar um bloqueio de comunicação, Wadi também informou que 47 outras pessoas foram transportadas para a cidade mais próxima, al-Mujlad.

Uma fonte médica, que pediu anonimato por sua segurança, disse que 30 delas morreram em decorrência de suas lesões.

The medic said: “A total of 80 people were killed in the drone strike on al-Dibab, and another drone strike on al-Mujlad injured four who are currently being treated.”.

Wadi said the drone struck twice, 10 minutes apart, “on a transport hub where people gather to travel back to their villages after the market day ends”.

The attack is one of the deadliest single strikes since war broke out in April 2023 when a power struggle between the Sudanese armed forces (SAF), headed by Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, erupted into violence in the capital, Khartoum.

A administração declarada pela RSF, conhecida como Tasis, acusou o exército de ter conduzido a greve de domingo. Todo o estado de West Kordofan está sob controle da RSF.

Sudan has witnessed an escalation in the use of drones in the war. Between January and April, drone strikes accounted for at least 880 civilian deaths, more than 80% of all conflict-related civilian deaths in Sudan.

After drone strikes on a busy livestock market in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, on Friday, the SAF said they had killed RSF fighters, but the RSF accused the military of killing 30 civilians.

The fighting in Sudan has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced many more. It has been fuelled by foreign powers with vested interests who are supporting sides in the conflict.

Na semana passada, Rosemary DiCarlo, subsecretária-geral de assuntos políticos e de construção da paz da ONU, alertou o Conselho de Segurança de que o conflito e a crise humanitária estavam se deteriorando “sem um avanço no horizonte”.

She said: “They [the warring parties] are not moving closer to dialogue. On the contrary, they seem to believe that they can make greater gains on the battlefield and that continued external support will allow them to pursue their objectives by force.”.