At least 21 people have been killed and more than 70 wounded in shelling at a crowded market in southeastern Sudan, a doctors’ union says.
The Sudan Doctors Network said the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were responsible for the attack in the city of Sennar on Sunday, condemning it as a “massacre” of civilians.
The incident came a day after the Sudanese military rejected a proposal by UN experts to send an international force to protect civilians.
Thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced since civil war between the army and RSF broke out in April last year, making it one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Several rounds of peace talks brokered by Saudi Arabia and the United States have failed to end the conflict.
The RSF controls much of the capital Khartoum, much of Kordofan state and much of Darfur – where it has been accused of using rape as a weapon of war and targeting Masalit and other non-Arab communities in a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
This army was unsuccessful in capturing the city of Sennar.
In June, It occupied most of the larger state of Sennar.Analysts say it is strategically important because of its proximity to Ethiopia and South Sudan and its rich agricultural output.
Both sides in the conflict in Sudan – the army and the RSF – have been accused of committing crimes against civilians.
Last week, the United Nations said the “heartbreaking” discoveries made during a fact-finding mission “may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity” by both sides.
The foreign ministry, loyal to the army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, voiced strong opposition on Saturday.
“The Government of Sudan has completely rejected the recommendations of the UN mission,” the report said, calling the UN Human Rights Council behind the fact-finding mission “a political and illegitimate body”.
RSF has not commented yet.
A UN arms embargo on Darfur has failed to stop new weapons from flowing into the hands of Sudan’s warring parties, Human Rights Watch says.
The campaign group said it had seen the footage. appears to demonstrate that the fighters are using newly acquired armed drones, anti-tank guided missiles, truck-mounted missile launchers and more. – native to China, Iran, Russia, Serbia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In the ongoing power struggle in Sudan, the military counts Egypt and Saudi Arabia as its backers while the UAE is said to back the RSF – although it strongly denies this.
Led by Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, the RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia accused of genocide against non-Arab communities in Darfur in 2003.
In recent months, the country has sought to raise its international profile and gain legitimacy as a political player by sending delegates to peace talks in Switzerland, but has been ignored by the military.
