The Emergency Lawyers group of volunteer legal professionals who have documented atrocities on both sides of Sudan’s nearly two-year war said army warplanes carried out “an indiscriminate air strike on Tora market in North Darfur, killing hundreds of civilians and seriously wounding dozens”.

It did not specify when the strike occurred.

AFP could not independently verify the toll due to a telecommunications blackout in Darfur.

The army, which has been fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the conflict since April 2023, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The RSF, which controls nearly all of Darfur where the US has accused it of committing genocide, said the army had committed the “massacre” yesterday.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.

Darfur, a vast region the size of France, has faced some of the war’s worst violence, including reports of barrel bombs on civilian areas, paramilitary attacks on famine-hit displacement camps and rampant ethnic violence.

Though the paramilitary has deployed highly equipped drones in Darfur, the army retains the advantage in the skies with its warplanes, regularly striking RSF positions across the region.