General al-Burhan’s army (SAF) has killed nearly 200 civilians and injured hundreds more, including dozens of women and children, in a new series of airstrikes targeting markets in various parts of Sudan.
The latest bombings hit the rural towns of Kabkabiya, Al-Kuma, and Melit, as well as the cities of Nyala and El Fasher, and the Khartoum suburb of Hai Mayo.
The SAF airstrikes, which appear to have been intentionally timed to strike busy markets, follow a year-long pattern of targeting civilian areas under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). These assaults, carried out on specific market days, seem designed to maximize casualties.
At least 86 people were killed and dozens wounded in an SAF airstrike on Kabkabiya on Monday. Many of the victims were local merchants—women selling tea, cooked meals, vegetables, and other goods.
Videos from the scene show the chaos that followed, with people desperately searching for loved ones amid burning buildings, toppled stalls, and charred bodies. One video captured the harrowing images of two children caught in the bombing.
Local leaders in Kabkabiya condemned the attack as a “massacre” and criticized the international community’s inaction. “The crimes committed by both parties to the war continue amid complete international silence,” stated the Darfur Bar Association.
In Hai Mayo, a suburb of southern Khartoum, an SAF airstrike hit a petrol station on Saturday, December 7, killing 28 people and injuring 37, many with severe burn injuries. Two days earlier, on December 4, another bombing struck a market in Al-Kuma, North Darfur, killing 45 people and injuring over 200. In the wake of this attack, the United Nations Migration Agency (IOM) reported that 246 households were displaced, and UNICEF confirmed that 13 children were among the victims.
UNICEF’s Sheldon Yett condemned the attacks, stating, “Children have no role to play in wars or civil conflict, but children are the ones who are suffering the most as the conflict in Sudan grinds on.”
Additional SAF airstrikes targeted the town of Melit on December 3, killing seven civilians, including children, according to a medical source. The ongoing bombing of market towns like Melit has disrupted local economies and worsened the already dire humanitarian situation, with widespread hunger across the region.
Earlier attacks included bombings in Kab al-Jiddad village in Al-Jazira State on November 24, and at a border crossing in Renk County on December 8, which injured three South Sudanese civilians. In Khartoum North, seven civilians died in a bombing on a mosque during Friday prayers.
These attacks have drawn widespread condemnation from local and international human rights groups, yet the conflict in Sudan shows little sign of abating, with civilians continuing to bear the brunt of the violence.
