A single drone turned a busy evening market into a scene of carnage in western Sudan. The strike hit the northern part of Nyala, the main city of South Darfur, at about 8pm on Monday. A doctor at Nyala Hospital told AFP that 21 people had died and more than 40 were wounded, adding that he could not say how many of them were fighters.
The location matters. Nyala serves as the unofficial seat of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which have set up a rival administration there to challenge the army-backed government in Khartoum. Residents said the market drew many young men, among them RSF members. The regular army, locked in conflict with the paramilitaries for two and a half years, has bombed the city repeatedly, though it did not immediately comment on this attack.
The paramilitaries hit back in their own way, aiming their drones at the power grid in the government-held east. On Tuesday it was the turn of a key substation at Al-Markhiyat, west of Omdurman; according to a power company insider, the blackout spread over large areas of the capital region and neighbouring Gezira. Only a day earlier, a coordinated wave against six power stations had left millions without electricity in four eastern and central states.
What began as a ground war has become a contest of long-range unmanned strikes, with civilians paying the price far from any front line. By the UN’s count, unmanned aircraft have killed upwards of 300 people since the start of this month.
Aid groups estimate that over 200,000 people have died since the fighting started, and no country on earth currently has more people going hungry or driven from home. A group of 30 states, Washington, Paris and London among them, appealed on Monday for swift steps to keep famine from engulfing even more regions.
