Alleged airstrike on 13 Market, East Nile, Khartoum State

Sudan Witness has verified footage showing a destroyed marketplace and motionless bodies in East Nile, Khartoum State.

On 16 November, a pro-RSF Telegram channel posted a video showing active fires, destroyed market stalls, and bodies laying on the ground in a market area. Sudan Witness geolocated the footage to the so-called 13 Market, at the Station 13 junction, in East Nile, Khartoum (figure 1). Another pro-RSF Telegram channel posted a video on the same date, showing at least 15 bodies lying beside burnt market stalls. The description of the video states that the footage shows the aftermath of an airstrike at Station 13 market, but Sudan Witness has not yet geolocated the video

Both the social media posts claimed that the damage shown in the footage was caused by an airstrike. On 17 November, the RSF posted an official statement to Telegram claiming that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) killed a total 650 people in concurrent bombings on the Libyan Market in Omdurman and the 13 Market in Eastern Nile on the evening of 16 November. Sudan Witness has seen no evidence to confirm this figure. 

Nonetheless, while Sudan Witness has not seen sufficient visual evidence to confirm that an airstrike definitely took place, comparative analysis of Planet satellite imagery imagery of the location from 15 and 16 November showed new burn marks (figure 2), indicating that  13 Market suffered fire damage at the time of the alleged airstrike.

Sudan Witness has verified social media footage related to hundreds reported airstrikes throughout the conflict. Human rights organisations and government bodies, including the United Nations Security Council, have condemned the SAF’s “indiscriminate airstrikes” on Sudan. 

At least 61,000 people have died in Khartoum State alone since fighting broke out between the RSF and the SAF in Sudan in April 2023, according to research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) cited by the BBC.