A Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) attack on a busy market in western Darfur on Monday resulted in a "horrific massacre", a war monitor said on Wednesday.
The military's shelling of the Tur'rah market, located 80km north of el-Fasher, left hundreds dead, according to Emergency Lawyers, a group of lawyers who monitor the war in Sudan. While an official death toll has yet to be confirmed, Sudanese aid groups reported that at least 54 people were killed in the attack.
Darfur Victims Support (DVS), a local group that supports victims of the conflict, cited eyewitnesses who reported that some 126 civilians were killed in the attack, with many bodies "burnt beyond recognition".
The group noted that the market serves as a commercial hub for the surrounding areas and that it would have been thronging with people at the time of the attack, at approximately 2pm.
DVS condemned the strike as "deliberate and systematic," reporting that approximately 10 barrel bombs were dropped on the market. It further cited one witness who said that white phosphorous was used in the attack. Images shared by the group appeared to show charred bodies scattered among the smouldering ruins of the market stalls.
Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan arrived by plane in Sudan’s capital Khartoum after his troops recaptured the airport on Wednesday from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Reuters reported on Wednesday that RSF forces had mostly withdrawn from the capital, with the army deploying throughout several neighbourhoods, in what is one of the most significant developments of the two-year war between the army and the RSF.
Last Friday, Sudan’s army took full control of the country’s presidential palace in Khartoum, two years after it was seized by the paramilitary RSF. Today, Al Jazeera aired footage showing Burhan inside the presidential palace where he declared, “Khartoum is free”.
After closing in on the building on the Blue Nile in recent days, the army-aligned government announced its capture on Friday. “Today the flag is raised, the palace is back and the journey continues until victory is complete,” Khaled al-Aiser, Sudan’s information minister, wrote on X when the palace was captured.
The streets of Khartoum erupted in celebration on Tuesday after the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) declared the city free from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia.
Following intense street battles, the SAF officially announced its control over Khartoum, sparking jubilant scenes among those who remained in the city. Mohamed Obaid, 40, from Nile East - a former RSF stronghold - described the terror of survival under occupation. “I stayed indoors for days without food, too afraid to step outside,” he recounted to Middle East Eye. “I don’t even want to remember those days.
You could die at any moment for no reason. “If you managed to reach a Starlink shop to exchange money, you’d find RSF fighters running the place, seizing 30 percent of your cash for no reason.
They controlled all supplies and sold them at outrageous prices.” Emad Hassan, who fled to Cairo when the conflict erupted, told MEE: “I never thought I’d use this key again,” waving the key to his long-abandoned home in Khartoum. Hassan compared his experience to that of Palestinian refugees, forced from their homes but never giving up the hope of return.
“They still carry the keys to their houses wherever they go. We Sudanese love our land. We will return. The RSF expelled us in the most humiliating way, but we will come back.”
Despite the jubilant scenes, for many displaced Sudanese, the situation remains too volatile to risk returning home.
Once a symbol of beauty at the confluence of the White and Blue Nile, the capital now bears the scars of war - widespread destruction, streets littered with debris, and homes filled with tragic stories.
Dead bodies of civilians and soldiers alike serve as grim reminders of the suffering endured.
