At least 23 people were killed and over 40 injured in an airstrike by the Sudanese military on a marketplace in the capital Khartoum on Sunday, according to the Southern Belt emergency room, Al Jazeera reports.
The market is located near one of the main camps of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), highlighting the ongoing intensity of the civil war that has gripped the nation.
The airstrike comes amidst fierce fighting around Khartoum, much of which is currently controlled by the RSF. The military has been conducting aerial attacks on the city center and south, while advancing towards Khartoum from nearby Omdurman, where clashes erupted on Saturday.
The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF has been raging since April 2023, leading to the deaths of an estimated 20,000 people and displacing over 10 million. This includes 2.4 million refugees who have fled to neighboring countries.
The government loyal to the army has established a base in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, which remains under army control. The RSF, meanwhile, has seized control of nearly all of Darfur, the vast western region, and has also made advances into the agricultural heartland of central Sudan and the army-controlled southeast.
The ongoing conflict has left over 25 million people – about half of Sudan’s population – in desperate need of food and healthcare. The UN declared a famine in the Zamzam refugee camp in Darfur in August, highlighting the severity of the humanitarian crisis.
