Sudan's army claims Nyala strikes killed RSF fighters; RSF says 30 civilians died

Sudan’s army said on Saturday that it had killed dozens of fighters from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a series of air strikes on Nyala, the group’s stronghold in Darfur. The RSF gave a very different account, saying an army drone had struck a crowded livestock market and killed 30 civilians.

The army said Friday’s strikes targeted RSF positions and command and control centres in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state and the seat of the RSF’s self-declared administration. Residents reported hearing several explosions across the city.

‘An arena of destruction and blood’

The RSF and its political coalition, Tasees, said 17 women and five children were among the dead, and that dozens more were wounded. Tasees described the market as “an arena of destruction and blood”, called the strike a “massacre” and asked the UN Security Council to order an independent investigation. The RSF said the drone was a Turkish-made Akinci and accused the army and Egypt of being behind the attack.

The rights group Emergency Lawyers confirmed that a market in Nyala was hit on Friday and said the drone used was “affiliated” with the army. The RSF has not said whether any of its fighters were killed or its command centres destroyed. None of the casualty figures could be independently confirmed.

A war that keeps widening

A Sudanese government source said the RSF had carried out drone attacks on mining sites in South Kordofan, and that fighting had intensified in many parts of the country over the past day.

Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan vowed earlier this month to retake “every inch” of territory held by the RSF, which controls most of Darfur. The civil war, which began in 2023, has killed tens of thousands of people, and the UN calls it the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.