Fifteen people were killed and 12 others wounded, "some of them critically," in a bombing that targeted a market in the city of El Fasher, North Darfur, western Sudan, on Tuesday, a medical source at El Fasher Hospital told AFP on Wednesday.
The Coordination of El Fasher Resistance Committees said in a statement, "The Rapid Support Forces militia launched a drone attack targeting a local market crowded with civilians in El Fasher, resulting in more than 27 deaths and injuries."
The medical source, who requested anonymity, explained that the hospital is suffering from "a shortage of medicine, even the gauze we use to cover wounds is gone."
He told AFP, "We have now started using mosquito nets to bandage the wounds."
Cities in Darfur are suffering from severe shortages of medical supplies and food due to the lack of aid due to violence and the blockage of roads and communications.
An attack by the Rapid Support Forces on Friday killed at least 75 people when a drone targeted a mosque housing displaced people who had been forced to flee the Abu Shouk camp on the outskirts of El Fasher.
El Fasher, which has been besieged by the Rapid Support Forces for more than a year, has been subjected to intense attacks in recent months, particularly targeting displacement camps that house hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war zones.
El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state and the last major city in the vast region still under the control of the army and its allies, has been under siege by the Rapid Support Forces since May 2024. The United Nations and non-governmental organizations have previously confirmed that both sides have committed "widespread and systematic war crimes" in the region, targeting certain ethnic groups.
Satellite images taken last week showed the Rapid Support Forces advancing toward El Fasher, approaching the city's airport and the headquarters of the army's Sixth Division.
The Rapid Support Forces currently control a large part of the Abu Shouk displacement camp on the outskirts of El Fasher. According to the United Nations, approximately 90 percent of the camp's population of approximately 200,000 people fled last year.
At least 260,000 civilians are trapped inside El Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who the United Nations warns are facing severe food insecurity amid a near-total cessation of humanitarian aid.
Residents of El Fasher are now subsisting on animal feed due to their inability to access food, while many public kitchens have closed.
Sudan has been embroiled in a bloody war since April 2023 between the army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country's de facto ruler since the 2021 coup, and the RSF led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as "Hemedti." Both sides are accused of committing massacres.
The war, now in its third year, has caused what the United Nations has described as "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world."
In North Darfur alone, more than one million people are suffering from famine, according to the United Nations.
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