Darfur Market Strikes Kill More Than 100, Rights Group Says

At a glance

• Emergency Lawyers, a rights group, reported more than 100 deaths and 113 injuries in Monday’s strikes on a market in Nyala, South Darfur. Most of the casualties were reportedly women and children.
• Witnesses told the Associated Press that RSF fighters had gathered at the market, where civilians sold tea, food and cigarettes. The strikes reportedly killed both fighters and civilians.
• Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said a hospital it supports received 36 bodies after the attack, 21 wearing civilian clothing, and treated more than 150 wounded people.
• The Sudan Doctors Network reported a preliminary toll of 21 dead and more than 40 wounded.
• The army and the RSF have been at war since April 2023. The fighting has displaced millions and driven parts of Sudan into famine.

Context

The full toll from Monday’s strikes remains unclear. Emergency Lawyers reported more than 100 dead, while the Sudan Doctors Network gave a preliminary toll of 21 dead and more than 40 wounded, citing difficulties accessing documentation amid military operations. MSF said a hospital it supports received 36 bodies, 21 wearing civilian clothing, and treated more than 150 wounded people. It also reported a second strike on a civilian neighbourhood after the market attack. Casualty figures from the attack remain disputed. The United Nations says drone strikes have become the leading cause of civilian deaths in Sudan.

The attack took place in Nyala, a major centre in territory controlled by the RSF, which now holds much of Darfur. The force was formed in 2013 from the Janjaweed militia, whose fighters were accused of ethnic cleansing and atrocities against non Arab communities in the region. In January 2025, the United States determined that the RSF and allied militias had committed genocide in Sudan. The RSF denies the accusation.

The RSF was once allied with Sudan’s army, but the two forces turned against each other in April 2023. Army chief Abdel Fattah al Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, fell out over Sudan’s political future and plans to integrate the RSF into the army. Their dispute followed a 2021 coup that overturned a power sharing arrangement between civilians and the military, established after the 2019 ousting of long serving president Omar al Bashir.

The war has since displaced millions and driven parts of Sudan into famine. In Nyala, the share of children seeking treatment for severe acute malnutrition more than doubled from 5% in January to 11% in August, according to UN estimates.

Why It Matters

RSF fighters were reportedly gathered at the market, but civilians were there too, selling food and other goods. The presence of fighters does not remove the need to protect civilians. In a city where hunger is already widespread, attacks on markets and neighbourhoods put people at risk in places they depend on to earn a living and obtain food.

What We Think

The genocide in Darfur cannot be understood separately from the RSF’s history of violence against non Arab communities in the region. The current war has given these communities little respite from that violence, while mass killings, displacement and hunger continue to take their toll. The latest strikes in Nyala come against this backdrop, with civilians once again caught in the fighting.