In a Sudanese market, a drone attack claims over 43 lives amidst ongoing hostilities

Over 43 people lost their lives on Sunday as a result of a drone attack that was directed at an open market south of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. At least 55 additional people were reportedly injured in the assault, according to reports from activists and medical professionals, highlighting the intensifying power struggle between the nation’s military and a strong paramilitary force.

The incident took place in the May neighborhood of Khartoum, and injured people were quickly taken for medical attention to Bashair University Hospital. According to AP, disturbing social media photographs showed the mournful sight of dead covered in white on the hospital grounds.

The attack’s perpetrators are still unknown since both sides have participated in indiscriminate bombing and shelling, prolonging the fight and making the Greater Khartoum region a dangerous battlefield.

The violence that has gripped Sudan since mid-April is the result of rising hostilities between General Abdel Fattah Burhan’s military troops and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo’s Rapid Support troops. According to accounts from rights organizations and activists, the conflict has now spread to many districts, with RSF soldiers using civilian homes as operating bases in the Greater Khartoum region, which sparked retaliatory bombs on residential neighborhoods.

The war has taken a dangerous turn and manifests as ethnically motivated violence in the devastated Darfur area, which still bears the scars of a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s. Attacks on ethnic African populations by RSF and other Arab militias have been confirmed by rights groups and the UN, worsening the humanitarian catastrophe.

According to statistics from the United Nations from August, the fighting has tragically claimed the lives of almost 4,000 people. However, as medical experts and activists on the ground argue, the full scope of this calamity is likely far bigger. According to the UN organization for refugees, the number of people who are internally displaced has increased dramatically, almost doubling since mid-April, and currently exceeds 7.1 million. Furthermore, the fact that nearly 1.1 million Sudanese have sought asylum in neighboring nations emphasizes the tremendous suffering caused by this prolonged war.