Sudan's army said it killed dozens of fighters from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a series of airstrikes on Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state in the country's southwest. The RSF, for its part, accused the army of killing civilians.
In its statement, the Sudanese army said the targets hit on Friday (August 8) were RSF positions and command centres in Nyala, where the paramilitary force has set up its self-declared administration.
The RSF said the army carried out a drone attack on a crowded livestock market, killing 30 civilians, including 17 women and five children. The force neither confirmed nor denied whether separate army strikes killed any of its fighters or destroyed command centres.
In a related development, the human rights group Emergency Lawyers said in a post on X that a market in Nyala was hit on Friday and that the drone used was linked to the Sudanese army.
Al Jazeera correspondent Almigdad Alruhaid, reporting from the capital Khartoum, said fighting between the army and the RSF is "intensifying." He quoted a source in the Sudanese government as saying that in South Kordofan, the RSF carried out drone attacks on mining areas, as clashes escalated in several parts of Sudan over the past 24 hours.
The Sudanese army has repeatedly used drones to strike the western Darfur region in an effort to retake territory held by the RSF, which now controls most of the area. Earlier this month, army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan vowed to retake "every inch" of territory under RSF control.
Sudan's civil war erupted in 2023 and has killed tens of thousands of people. The United Nations has described the situation in Sudan as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
