Sudan market massacre: 54 killed, 158 injured in RSF attack on Omdurman market

A notorious paramilitary group fighting against the country’s military has attacked an open market in the city of Omdurman, killing 54 people, said Sudan’s health authorities.

In a statement issued by the health ministry, it said that Saturday’s attack by the Rapid Support Forces on the Sabrein Market also wounded at least 158 others.

Khalid al-Aleisir, minister of culture and government spokesperson, condemned the attack, saying that the casualties included many women and children. He also said the attack caused “widespread destruction to private and public properties.”

“This criminal act adds to the bloody record of this militia,” he said in a statement. “It constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”

The conflict in Sudan began in April 2023 when escalating tensions between the leaders of the military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted into open warfare in Khartoum and other cities across the vast north-eastern African nation.

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The ongoing violence has claimed the lives of more than 28,000 people, forced millions to flee their homes, and driven some families to resort to eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive as famine spreads across the country.

The conflict has been marked by severe atrocities, including ethnically motivated killings and rape, according to to the United Nations and human rights organizations. The International Criminal Court is currently investigating allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Counter-offensive

Saturday’s attack comes a day after RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo vowed to retake the capital from the army.

“We expelled them (from Khartoum) before, and we will expel them again,” he told troops in a rare video address.

Soon after the first shelling began nearly 22 months ago, Sudan’s capital was turned into a shell of its former self.

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Of the tens of thousands dead across the country, 26,000 people were killed in the capital alone between April 2023 and June 2024, according to a report by The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Entire neighbourhoods have been emptied out and taken over by fighters as at least 3.6 million people fled the capital, according to United Nations figures.

Those unable or unwilling to leave have reported shelling regularly hitting homes and residential areas, while sieges on parts of the capital have threatened millions with starvation.

At least 106,000 people are estimated to be suffering from famine in Khartoum, according to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, with a further 3.2 million experiencing crisis levels of hunger.

Across the northeast African country, famine has been declared in five areas –

mainly in the war-ravaged western region of Darfur – and is expected to take hold of five more by May.

Before leaving office, the administration of former US president Joe Biden sanctioned Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals and using food deprivation as a weapon of war.

That designation came about one week after Washington sanctioned the RSF’s Daglo for his role in “gross violations of human rights” in Sudan’s Darfur region, where the RSF dominates.

The United States said Daglo’s forces had “committed genocide”.

With inputs from agencies