Sudan: Air strikes kill dozens in Nyala City

Dozens of people, including women and children, were killed in army air strikes on Nyala City, the state capital of Darfur South.

According to The New Arab’s Arabic language sister publication, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, eyewitnesses described a horrific massacre against civilians, including the bombing of the Riyadh and Khartoum neighbourhoods at night.

Darfur and the capital Khartoum have been in the midst of months-long intense fighting between Sudan's army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Video footage of the aftermath of the bombing campaign showed dismembered bodies and severely wounded people, as people scrambled to rescue others.

The Sudanese opposition National Umma Party issued a statement condemning the army’s bombing of Nyala City, stating that most of the dead are women and children.

 They added that continued ariel bombardment targeting markets, residential areas and gathering points have become "a real threat to the lives of civilians and a crime that requires monitoring and accountability".

The party called for the army to spare citizens of bombardment and to consider the risks posed to citizens.

In Al-Jazira state in central Sudan, Rapid Support Forces also continued attacks on civilians, displacing them from villages resulting in a worsening humanitarian crisis, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.

At least three citizens were killed in the rural village of Al-Ja’afra, while 51 others were detained by RSF.

Another three were killed in the city of El-Fasher on Sunday, with witnesses stating shelling targeted southern neighbourhoods of the city.

The RSF have been at war with Sudan's regular army since April 2023 but have in recent days intensified their violence against civilians in al-Jazira.

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people, with some estimates of 150,000 dead.

It has also caused what the UN calls the world's largest displacement crisis, with more than seven million uprooted.

In June, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the UN, said Sudan is the planet's "largest humanitarian crisis".

Human Rights Watch said in a report earlier this year that attacks by the paramilitary force and its allied militias, which has killed thousands since April 2023, constituted ethnic cleansing against the area’s non-Arab population.

The rights group said the RSF and its militias targeted the ethnic Masalit and other non-Arab groups in El Geneina, the capital city of West Darfur state. Masalit who were captured were tortured, women and girls were raped, and entire neighbourhoods were looted and destroyed, Human Rights Watch said.

The RSF controls the capitals of four of the five states in Darfur and has intensified its military campaign for control of the lone holdout, North Darfur capital El Fasher.