Africa

At least 30 die in army shelling of Sudan market as violence escalates

Most of the victims in city of Omdurman were children and women, witnesses say

A brick roadblock in the city of Omdurman, where at least 30 have died after a market was shelled. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images

Zeinab Mohammed Salih in Khartoum
Fri Jul 14 2023 - 07:04

At least 30 people died when the Sudanese army shelled a market in Omdurman during what residents of the country’s most populous city described as the worst week for civilian casualties since the outbreak of war in April.

Most of the victims in the incident at the Shaabi souk on Tuesday were children and women, according to witnesses.

Medical sources said the shells were fired from the Karri military base, which the army controls, during fierce fighting with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

A vegetable seller said people trying to steal produce were among the victims. Food prices have risen sharply in recent months and many people living in Omdurman and its sister cities of Khartoum and Bahri have run out of money.

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“The majority of the victims were people who had come to loot the market,” the vegetable seller said. “The market has become very dangerous, especially in the afternoon. You can just get shelled and die.”

Another vegetable seller said that as of Thursday some of the victims’ bodies still lay uncovered, and that the bodies of children were covered only by empty boxes.

Like other major Sudanese cities, much of Omdurman has come to resemble a battlefield since clashes broke out between the regular army and the RSF on April 15th, in a violent escalation of a years-long power struggle between the two main factions of the country’s military regime.

Roads around the market have been occupied by army snipers this week after RSF fighters withdrew from positions they had held since the start of the conflict.

Last Saturday, 38 people were killed in Omdurman’s Dar es Salaam neighbourhood in one of the deadliest air strikes of the war so far, which the RSF blamed on the military.

More than three million people have left the Khartoum area since the start of the war, according to the UN, equating to about 50 per cent of the population.

Those remaining are mostly unable to leave for health or financial reasons or because they hail from the volatile provinces of Kordofan or Darfur, where fighting has also been particularly fierce.

On Thursday, the UN said the bodies of dozens of people allegedly killed by the RSF had been uncovered in a mass grave in West Darfur. El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, is now besieged by the RSF, and civilians there are struggling to access essentials. – Guardian

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