Sudan's army says strikes on Nyala hit RSF command centres; RSF says drone killed 30 at a livestock market

Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have given conflicting accounts of airstrikes on Nyala, the RSF-held capital of South Darfur, on Friday 16 October.

The army said the strikes hit RSF command centres and killed dozens of fighters, Al Jazeera reported. The RSF has not confirmed or denied losses; it said an army drone struck a busy livestock market, killing 30 civilians, including 17 women and five children. The Sudanese rights group Emergency Lawyers said the market was hit by a drone “affiliated” with the army.

On Sunday, Ahmed Ishaq Shanab, spokesman for the Darfur regional government, which is aligned with the army, told the state news agency SUNA that the strikes had been “painful” for the RSF and that the group was “not safe” in Nyala, Anadolu Agency reported. He said operations would continue as far as Um Dafuq, near the border with the Central African Republic. Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan promised this month to seize “every inch” of territory under RSF control, Al Jazeera reported.

Dabanga, a Sudanese news outlet, reported on Sunday that a drone strike attributed to the RSF in Bir Saliba, West Darfur, on Saturday killed several people, including six women. Citing the Kordofan Observatory, it said an army drone hit a lorry near Ankush in West Kordofan, killing four people. Drones also targeted Gedaref, Khashm El Girba and the Upper Atbara dam complex in eastern Sudan on Sunday; several were intercepted and no casualties were reported, Dabanga said.

None of the claims could be independently verified.

Background

The war between the army and the RSF began in April 2023 and has killed tens of thousands of people, according to Al Jazeera. The RSF holds most of the Darfur region and runs a self-declared administration from Nyala. The UN has described the situation in Sudan as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. At a UN Security Council meeting last week, members were divided over sanctions, and the United States said it would keep pushing to expand them, according to the UN’s meeting record.