Al-Zurq market in North Darfur has been left in ruins after a drone strike by the Sudanese army, using Turkish-made drones, reduced the busy trading center to ashes.
Dozens of civilians were killed and many others wounded in the attack, which turned the bustling site into a scene of devastation.
Local residents said the market had attracted vendors and shoppers from neighboring villages, but the sudden bombardment left nothing standing.
"We had nothing left with which to bury our dead," one resident lamented. "The market burned, taking everything with it."
The strike follows a drone attack on Wednesday that targeted an RSF training camp near Nyala and the city’s airport, which the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) use as a logistics hub.
Sudan’s army has recently intensified its use of drones in the conflict, targeting wide areas of the Darfur region controlled by the RSF.
The attack underscores the worsening humanitarian crisis in Darfur, where civilians continue to bear the brunt of indiscriminate aerial bombardments.
Once a lifeline for surrounding communities, Al-Zurq market is now only a memory — its charred tents and ashes a grim reminder of the toll the conflict has taken on everyday life.
Al-Zurq, a remote town on the border with Libya and Chad, is a strategic base for the RSF to receive supplies. The town has been the target of previous army airstrikes and briefly changed hands late last year before the RSF recaptured it from an army-allied force.
Sudan has been engulfed in war since April 2023, when fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF.
The conflict has displaced millions, pushed regions into famine, and left civilians trapped in areas of heavy fighting with limited humanitarian access.
About two weeks ago, another drone strike killed at least 78 people after hitting a mosque in Sudan's Darfur region.
The RSF and the army have been engaged in a ferocious civil war for more than two years.
The paramilitaries have been gaining ground as they fight to seize complete control of El-Fasher — the last army stronghold in Darfur and home to more than 300,000 civilians trapped by the fighting.
The United Nations has consistently warned of the "increasing ethnicisation of the conflict," saying both sides are retaliating against people accused of collaborating with opposing parties.
