Medical source reports 40 killed in paramilitary shelling of Sudan market

Forty people were killed on Saturday in a market in Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum, after a paramilitary shelling by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to a medical source speaking to AFP. The source, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons, confirmed that the wounded are still being brought to Al-Nao Hospital following the attack.

The RSF, which has been in conflict with Sudan’s regular army since April 2023, has been involved in a brutal war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced over 12 million people. A survivor of the attack explained that the shells hit the middle of the vegetable market, resulting in a high number of casualties.

A volunteer at Al-Nao Hospital also reported a dire shortage of medical supplies, including shrouds, blood donors, and stretchers to help transport the injured. Al-Nao is one of the few remaining medical facilities still operational in the area, and it has been attacked multiple times during the conflict.

Following months of deadlock in Khartoum, Sudan’s army recently retook key positions, including its headquarters, pushing the RSF further into the city’s outskirts. Eyewitnesses reported that the shelling on Saturday came from the western part of Omdurman, where the RSF maintains control, and was supported by drone strikes. One resident in southern Omdurman described the RSF as firing on multiple streets, with “rockets and artillery shells falling.”

This attack came just a day after RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo pledged to retake Khartoum from the army. “We expelled them (from Khartoum) before, and we will expel them again,” he said in a rare video address to his troops.

Since the conflict began nearly 22 months ago, Khartoum has been devastated, and more than 26,000 people have died in the capital between April 2023 and June 2024, according to a report from The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Entire neighborhoods have been abandoned as millions of people have fled the capital, with 3.6 million people displaced, according to United Nations figures.

For those who remained, shelling has consistently hit homes and residential areas, while parts of the city have been besieged, leaving millions at risk of starvation. The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification estimates that at least 106,000 people in Khartoum are suffering from famine, with an additional 3.2 million facing severe hunger.

Famine has already been declared in five areas across Sudan, particularly in the western Darfur region, with further areas expected to be impacted by May. The U.S. administration under former President Joe Biden had previously sanctioned Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan for attacking civilian targets such as schools, hospitals, and markets and using food deprivation as a weapon of war. The U.S. also imposed sanctions on RSF leader Dagalo for his involvement in “gross violations of human rights” in Darfur, where the RSF has a strong presence, accusing his forces of committing genocide.