By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Several people have been killed following an attack on a busy market near Sudan’s capital, leaving a mortuary “filled with bodies,” according to the medical NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are responsible for Saturday’s attack in the city of Omdurman, which killed and injured more than 100 people, according to MSF and the Sudanese authorities .
The Sudanese Doctors’ Union stated that the majority of those killed at the market were women and children.
The RSF and Sudan’s army have been at war since April 2023, a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and led to what the UN describes as one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
Eyewitnesses reported that Saturday’s artillery shelling originated from western Omdurman, where the RSF remains in control, according to AFP.
The explosion caused “utter carnage” at the nearby Al Nao Hospital, which was overwhelmed with injured patients, MSF general secretary Chris Lockyear said.
The Sudanese Doctors’ Union appealed for nearby medics to assist at the hospital, citing an “acute shortage of medical staff.” It added that one shell landed just “metres away” from the hospital on Saturday.
“The shells hit in the middle of the vegetable market, which is why there are so many victims and wounded,” a survivor recounted.
Both sides have been accused of targeting civilians, including health workers, and of indiscriminately shelling residential areas.