<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Air strikes killed at least 46 people and injured dozens Sunday at a Khartoum market, local activists said, one of the deadliest single attacks in Sudan's nearly five months of war.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The bombing in the south of Sudan's capital came about a week after another air strike, also in southern Khartoum, killed 20 civilians on September 2, according to activists.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The number of victims in Sunday's "Qouro market massacre" had risen to 46 by evening, said the local resistance committee, one of many groups that used</div><div style="text-align: justify;">to organise pro-democracy protests and now provide assistance during the war. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">bnbd24/kh</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In its statement, the committee revised an earlier toll of 30 killed. It added there were "dozens wounded" and said casualties continued to pour into the nearby Bashair hospital.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"At about 7:15 am (0515 GMT), military aircraft bombarded the Qouro market area," the committee said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The hospital had issued an "urgent appeal" for all medical professionals in the area to come and help treat the "increasing number of injured people arriving".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location &amp; Event Data Project says nearly 7,500 people have been killed in the war that began on April 15 between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In early July an air strike on a residential area of Omdurman, Khartoum's sister city, killed around two dozen people and drew condemnation from the United Nations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Millions uprooted -</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The armed forces control the skies over Khartoum, while RSF fighters continue to dominate the city's streets.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The army has been accused of repeated indiscriminate shelling of the residential areas where the paramilitaries have embedded themselves, including by evicting families and taking over homes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Positioning themselves in civilian occupied neighbourhoods and buildings is "a potential violation of the Geneva Conventions," the US-supported Sudan Conflict Observatory has said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It added that the Sudanese Armed Forces "would still be required to ensure that civilian harm is minimised regardless of whether a target has been made a legitimate military target."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Sunday RSF accused the military of the "air strikes against civilians in the south of Khartoum."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The armed forces denied attacking the market, saying it "directs its strikes against rebel gatherings, crowds and bases as legitimate military targets, and fully adheres to international humanitarian law."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the capital, fighting has been mainly been concentrated in the western region of Darfur.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Western countries have accused the RSF and allied militias of killings based on ethnicity in Darfur, and the International Criminal Court has opened a new probe into alleged war crimes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After months of combat, neither side has been able to seize a decisive advantage.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">UN data show that around 2.8 million people have fled the Sudanese capital, whose pre-war population was around five million.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those who cannot or refuse to leave Khartoum remain trapped by air strikes, artillery fire and street battles, forced to ration precious water and electricity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A total of more than five million people have been forced to flee their homes in Sudan, according to the UN, one million of them across borders.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the early months of the war, truces brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia were systematically violated before the two mediators adjourned talks in June.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recent moves by Burhan, including trips to Egypt, South Sudan and Qatar, signalled a potential return to diplomacy, though both he and Daglo continue to trade hostile statements. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>