Khartoum: Rhino – Darfur Initiative for Justice and Peace condemned the army’s bombing of the market in the Khamisa area northwest of Al-Tukma in South Kordofan State on Thursday, during a gathering of citizens from villages and neighboring areas on the weekly market day, using an Antonov aircraft, which resulted in the killing and wounding of dozens of civilians.

The Initiative added in a statement: “The killing of innocent civilians and the targeting of markets and civilian infrastructure, which has become the modus operandi of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group, will not stop unless these terrorist groups are crushed and all sources of their funding and armaments are cut off.”

The statement continued: “This bombing by an Antonov aircraft, according to the news source, indicates a dangerous development. It is well known that the Sudanese army has lost all its fighter jets and has relied on Turkish and Iranian drones in recent months. The question now is: where did the aircraft that bombed the Khamisa market come from?”

The statement added: “The Darfur Initiative for Justice and Peace warns of a further escalation in the targeting of civilians in the coming days if the report of the market being targeted by an Antonov aircraft is true. The Initiative sends a clear message to all international institutions, foremost among them the United Nations—represented by the Security Council, the Human Rights Council, and the African Union Peace and Security Council—as well as the Quartet and the Quintet Initiative, to put an end to the targeting of citizens and to protect civilians. It also urges the fact-finding mission to investigate the repeated violations and massacres committed against innocent civilians).

He continued: “We affirm that these attacks clearly violate all forms of international law and treaties, particularly international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions and their Protocols on the protection of civilians and civilian objects during armed conflicts”.