Sodari, NORTH KORDOFAN (SCANS) — Drones struck a crowded marketplace in Sudan’s North Kordofan state Sunday, killing at least 28 people and wounding dozens more in an attack that a human rights group condemned as a violation of international law.
Emergency Lawyers, a group tracking violence against civilians, said drones bombed the al-Safiya market in the town of Sodari in North Kordofan state.
The attack occurred when the market was packed with people, “exacerbating the humanitarian tragedy,” the group said, adding that the casualty count was likely to rise.
“The attack occurred when the market was bustling with civilians, including women, children and the elderly,” the group said.
The attack occurred in a Rapid Support Forces-controlled area in the far north of Sudan’s Kordofan region, currently the fiercest frontline in the three-year-old war between the army and the paramilitary RSF.
Emergency Lawyers did not attribute responsibility for the strike in its statement, though the group said on X that the drones belonged to the army.
Two military officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, told SCANS that the army does not target civilian infrastructure and denied involvement in the attack.
Sodari, a remote town where desert trade routes cross, is 230 kilometers (132 miles) northwest of el-Obeid, the state capital of North Kordofan, which the RSF has been trying to encircle for months.
The Kordofan region has seen a surge in deadly drone attacks as both sides fight over the country’s vital east-west axis, which links the western RSF-held Darfur region, through el-Obeid, to the army-controlled capital, Khartoum, and the rest of Sudan.
Emergency Lawyers called the strike a “serious violation of international humanitarian law” that undermines the principle of civilian protection during armed conflict.
The group demanded an immediate halt to drone attacks by both sides of the conflict and called on warring parties to stop targeting civilian infrastructure and comply with international humanitarian law.
A week before the attack, a drone near the city of Rahad in North Kordofan hit a vehicle carrying displaced families, killing at least 24 people, including eight children. A day before that strike, a World Food Programme aid convoy was also hit by drones.
Fighting between the RSF and the Sudanese military erupted into a full-blown war in April 2023. At least 40,000 people have been killed and 12 million displaced, according to the World Health Organization. Aid groups say the true death toll could be many times higher, as fighting in vast and remote areas impedes access.
