Air force’s bombing of towns, markets and schools has killed hundreds, report says

Sudanese air forces carried out bombings that killed at least 1,700 civilians in attacks on residential areas, markets, schools and displaced persons camps, according to a study of air strikes during the civil war in Sudan.

The Sudan Witness Project says it has compiled the largest known dataset of military airstrikes during the conflict, which began in April 2023.

His analysis shows that air forces use unguided bombs in populated areas.

The data focuses on attacks by warplanes, which only the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) can carry out. Its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has no aircraft. It carries out drone attacks, but the drones are excluded from the investigation.

RSF has been condemned internationally for allegedly carrying out ethnic massacres in Sudan’s western Darfur region, triggering US accusations of genocide.

“RSF is blamed for a lot of damage and violations, and I think I’m right,” says Mark Snoeck, who runs the project. “But I think the SAF should also be held accountable for its actions.”

The army has also faced international criticism, accused of indiscriminate bombings.

The SAF did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment. But it has previously denied allegations that it targeted civilians and said the airstrikes were “only directed at RSF meetings, locations and bases that are considered legitimate military targets.”

Sudan Witness is an initiative of the Center for Information Resilience (CIR), a non-profit group working to expose human rights abuses. He received funding from the British foreign office for this project.

Sudan Witness analyzed 384 airstrikes carried out between April 2023 and July 2025, according to an advance copy of the report obtained by the BBC.

More than 1,700 civilians were reportedly killed and more than 1,120 injured in the events he documented. The group says these are conservative figures as it takes the lowest figure reported.

There were 135 cases involving residential areas, with confirmed destruction of homes and civil infrastructure.

In 35 cases, bombs hit markets and commercial facilities that were often crowded with people. And 19 strikes affected vulnerable groups in places such as health facilities, displaced persons shelters and educational institutions.

Sudan Witness admits its research is incomplete because the results reflect access to data rather than the total number of attacks. It is stated that obtaining information from conflict zones is difficult due to poor telecommunications and the difficulty of identifying reliable sources, and attacks on military targets are likely to be underreported.

But through a rigorous methodology, he says, the military has been able to build a broader picture of air operations, visualizing the information in an interactive map that shows the scale and impact on civilian populations.

“For us to say that the Sudanese Armed Forces conducted an airstrike on a specific location at a specific time would require the SAF to be captured at the event in verifiable footage,” Mr. Snoeck says. “And that may be a very high threshold because such images are so exceptional in Sudan. So we analyzed hundreds of airstrike claims to show the bigger picture.”

Mr. Snoeck says the main patterns that emerged were repeated attacks on residential neighborhoods and markets, as well as numerous alleged attacks on essential humanitarian and medical facilities.

“I think these patterns strongly suggest that the SAF is not doing enough to prevent civilian casualties,” he said.

Justin Lynch, managing director of Conflict Insights Group, which tracks foreign arms supplies to Sudan, told the BBC that Sudanese civilians were bearing the brunt of the fighting between the army and the RSF.

“The conflict in Sudan is actually a war against civilians,” he told the BBC. “Air power and other heavy weapons disproportionately target civilian rather than military areas.”

Sudan Witness calculates the credibility level of a reported airstrike based on publicly available digital information, known as open source.

It evaluates the reliability of the source, the ability to analyze the location through videos posted to social media and available satellite imagery.

Some of the events examined by Sudan Witness can only be based on reports. Where he could find corroborating evidence, he confirmed the attacks with a low to moderate degree of certainty.

However, the group highlights cases where damage from ammunition, impact craters or shrapnel was detected.

In one such example, Sudan Witness has verified numerous videos and images showing a crater containing an undetonated air-dropped bomb at the Zamzam camp for displaced people in North Darfur.

It appeared to match SH-250 unguided munitions produced by the Military Industry Corporation, a Sudanese weapons manufacturer.

“This is still one of the most disturbing findings I’ve studied,” Mr. Snoeck says. “Why would an unguided bomb be dropped on a camp for internally displaced people? This area was not even under the control of the RSF at that time, and the logic behind this attack still confuses me.”

In another attack, Sudan Witness confirmed rare video capturing the moment of impact, which included the roar of a plane followed by multiple explosions as civilians hid.

At least 30 people were killed and 100 people were injured in the bomb attack on Hamrat el-Sheikh Market in North Kordofan province.

Most of the airstrikes attributed to the SAF took place in RSF-controlled Darfur.

These include the August 2024 strike against a hospital in al-Daein, the historical capital of the Rizeigat people, to which the majority of RSF forces belong.

Sudan Witness confirmed images showing shrapnel damage in the building. The World Health Organization and UN children’s aid agency Unicef ​​reported that 16 civilians were killed, including three children and one healthcare worker.

Even a rebel group affiliated with the army criticized this attack. Sudan Tribune, an independent online news portal, quoted a spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement as saying citizens were surprised by indiscriminate airstrikes targeting hospitals and homes.

The city of Nyala in South Darfur state is a frequent target. The airport is alleged to be the main entry point for RSF weapons, including advanced drones delivered by the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi denies evidence that it supports RSF.

The SAF says it is targeting military equipment in the city.

But they lack precision weapons that could hit them accurately in such a crowded environment, according to Sudan War Monitor, a group of researchers tracking the conflict.

Sudan Witness analyzed a series of airstrikes in the city center in February this year, which were also documented by Human Rights Watch. They hit residential neighborhoods and a grocery store near an eye hospital, killing at least 63 people.

The group says attacks on busy markets and commercial centers are not only killing civilians but also disrupting economic stability and worsening the humanitarian crisis.

It was reported that at least 65 people died and 200 people were injured in the bomb attack that destroyed the Al Kuma market in North Darfur in October last year.

Sudan Witness confirmed the location of the images of the destroyed market and confirmed this with satellite images showing fresh burn marks in the area.

Al-Kuma lies about 80 km (50 mi) northeast of al-Fasher and until recently was the focus of fierce fighting and was caught in the crossfire of SAF air strikes against the RSF.

“It is impossible for a country’s army to bomb people with its air force and claim that it is doing this to protect the country,” a local official told Sudanese independent broadcaster Dabanga. he said.

Another local source said the town had been subjected to more than 30 air raids since the beginning of the war.

“This evidence of military airstrikes hitting markets and other civilian areas shows a blatant and unacceptable disregard for the safety of innocent Sudanese civilians,” a British foreign office official said. “No matter which side of the conflict they are on, the perpetrators of these heinous crimes must be held accountable.”

The Sudan Witness Project continued to monitor airstrikes after July 2025, but says both sides have turned to drone strikes in recent months.

The destructive cycle of air warfare sometimes targets groups perceived to support the other side, Sudan War Monitor says, highlighting that an alleged SAF drone strike on al-Kuma in October this time hit a social gathering at the home of a local religious leader.

Al-Kuma is predominantly inhabited by Ziyadiya, one of the nomadic Arab groups that form the social and ethnic backbone of the RSF.

That same weekend, RSF launched drone and artillery strikes on al-Fasher, striking a religious displacement center and reportedly killing at least 60 civilians.

Al-Fasher is dominated by non-Arab groups such as the Zaghawa, which RSF fighters associate with the Zaghawa armed groups defending the city.

“Neither side uses drones and airpower primarily to target military sites; they are either indiscriminate or designed to terrorize civilian populations under each other’s control, which is a war crime,” said Mr. Lynch of Conflict Insights Group.

The SAF says the RSF is sheltering in populated areas and insists it strictly complies with international humanitarian laws and rules of engagement, including the protection of civilians and their property.

In the Sudanese war, both sides were accused of war crimes.

This week RSF and its ally Sudan Liberation Movement-North were accused of drone strikes that hit a kindergarten and a hospital in the South Kordofan town of Kalogi.

WHO said 114 people, including 63 children, lost their lives.

Mr Lynch says not only are civilians suffering, neither side has achieved military success in the air war.

“The SAF used air operations to support the capture of Khartoum, but with this exception the air strikes resulted in too many civilian deaths and not too much military success,” he said.

“Similarly, the RSF uses foreign mercenaries backed by the UAE to fly drones, but with a few exceptions they have not actually achieved results.”

You can access the Sudan Witness report here. When it is released on December 10.