A landmine has killed 10 civilians on a bus in northern Sudan, a medical source said Sunday, in what appeared to be the first such incident during the country’s war.
The conflict pitting the regular army against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in April, and has led to thousands of people being killed and millions displaced.
A medical source at a hospital in Shendi city in River Nile state, who requested anonymity, told media that “10 civilians were killed as a result of a mine explosion on a bus” on Saturday.
The vehicle was transporting the passengers from eastern Al-Jazira state to Shendi, 180 kilometres (112 miles) from Khartoum, when the blast happened, the source said.
It is believed to be the first landmine blast to have occurred during the war between Sudan’s rival generals, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Neither side has officially commented on the explosion.
After months of a relative stalemate between the two forces, the RSF has managed to expand their territory throughout the country towards the east, where the army has so far remained in control.
The feared now controls nearly all the vast western region of Darfur, the streets of the capital, and has pressed further south, north and east.
More than 13,000 people have been killed since the war began, according to a conservative estimate by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, and the United Nations says more than seven million people have been displaced.
