Local groups reported that bodies were left 'charred beyond recognition' following the attack
A Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) attack on a busy market in western Darfur on Monday resulted in a "horrific massacre", a war monitor said on Wednesday.
The military's shelling of the Tur'rah market, located 80km north of el-Fasher, left hundreds dead, according to Emergency Lawyers, a group of lawyers who monitor the war in Sudan.
While an official death toll has yet to be confirmed, Sudanese aid groups reported that at least 54 people were killed in the attack.
Darfur Victims Support (DVS), a local group that supports victims of the conflict, cited eyewitnesses who reported that some 126 civilians were killed in the attack, with many bodies "burnt beyond recognition".
The group noted that the market serves as a commercial hub for the surrounding areas and that it would have been thronging with people at the time of the attack, at approximately 2pm.
DVS condemned the strike as "deliberate and systematic," reporting that approximately 10 barrel bombs were dropped on the market. It further cited one witness who said that white phosphorous was used in the attack.
Images shared by the group appeared to show charred bodies scattered among the smouldering ruins of the market stalls.
According to a list compiled by Adam Rejal, a spokesperson for the General Coordination, a local group helping displaced people in Darfur, over half the fatalities were women.
The 'deadliest single bombing'
The Darfur Initiative for Justice and Peace (DIJP) condemned the attack as the "deadliest single bombing since the beginning of the war".
An SAF spokesperson denied the allegations, insisting that civilians had not been targeted. He added that such accusations are levelled at the military "whenever our forces exercise their constitutional and legal right to deal with hostile targets”.
The UN secretary-general's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the body was "gravely alarmed by the continued attacks on civilians".
In recent months, the civilian death toll in Sudan has surged as fighting has intensified in the nearly two-year-long conflict between the SAF and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with artillery shelling, air strikes and drone attacks pounding civilian areas.
In February, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, reported that at least 275 people had been killed between 31 January and 5 February, representing a three-fold increase from the previous week.
At least 80 civilians were reported to have been killed in South Kordofan's captal Kadugli - where there were also reports of women and children being used as human shields.
Also in February, the RSF killed 433 people in a three-day attack in the White Nile state.
Some 150,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the conflict so far, which has been marked by war crimes and crimes against humanity, including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings.
Some 12 million have been forced to flee, and over half the population is currently facing "high levels of acute food insecurity" according to the UN.
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