SUDAN’S Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have massacred 54 people and wounded at least 158 in an attack on an open market in the city of Omdurman.

The paramilitary group has been fighting a civil war against the army since April 2023.

Government spokesman Khalid al-Aleisir condemned the attack, saying the casualties included many women and children and that widespread destruction had been caused.

“This criminal act adds to the bloody record of this militia,” he said in a statement on Saturday. “It constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”

Sudan’s Doctors Syndicate said one mortar shell hit just yards from al-Naw Hospital, which received most of the market casualties. The hospital has a significant shortage of medical staff, especially surgeons and nurses, it added.

At the hospital, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) secretary-general Chris Lockyear said: “There are dozens and dozens of people with devastating injuries. The morgue is full of dead bodies.”

Sudan’s army said on Saturday that its forces had been able to “expel the remnants” of the RSF from the areas of Rifa’a, Tambul, al-Hilaliya and al-Hasahisa in Gezeira.

The conflict has killed more than 28,000 people, displaced millions and caused famine in parts of the country.