Nyala: Khaled Musa Yahya was working outside the house to feed his two children when army warplanes carried out a raid on his house in al-Jumhuriya neighborhood in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state.

Khalid said that when he saw the warplanes flying over Nyala on Monday, he did not know that the raid would end the lives of his two children, Muhannad and Mohammed.

“I was outside the house while the planes were dropping barrel bombs, and I didn’t realize they were falling on my children’s bodies. When I got home, I found that my children were gone forever,” he said.

Dozens of families in Nyala have lost women, children and men as a result of the aerial bombardment of the city in recent days.

Abdullah Yahya, a resident of Nyala, said that the purpose of the repeated bombing of the city is to displace residents. He wondered: “Where will citizens go, in light of the economic conditions they are experiencing due to the war?” The death toll from the continuous aerial bombardment of Nyala over the past five days has risen to 85, according to medical sources.

Eyewitnesses reported that 18 bodies were completely charred in the cinema street in the city center, including 12 bodies inside a travel car coming from the city of El Daein that were not identified, after the car caught fire due to the bombardment that hit the place.

The shelling caused widespread destruction to residential homes in the Al-Naseem, Al-Jumhuriya, and Al-Masanas neighborhoods. Since the morning of Friday, January 31, warplanes have intensified their airstrikes on the city, with nine sorties. An Antonov 73 aircraft dropped barrel bombs on populated neighborhoods such as al-Jumhuriya, the cinema, al-Wadi, the airport district, the factories and the new industrial area.

Most of the shops, cafes and pharmacies in the city center closed their doors for fear of renewed bombing.