The Sudanese Alliance for Rights decries the deliberate and indiscriminate airstrike carried out by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on the bustling civilian market in Al-Kuma town, North Darfur State, on 1 June 2025. This brutal attack, launched during peak trading hours, resulted in the death of at least 89 civilians, including women and children, and left many others severely injured. The strike set large sections of the market ablaze, destroying essential infrastructure and livelihoods. All victims were civilians with no affiliation to any armed party, and Al-Kuma is not located within an active combat zone.
This attack represents a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, including:
•Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits violence to life and person, including murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment, and torture, against persons not actively participating in hostilities.
•Customary International Humanitarian Law (Rule 1), which requires that parties to a conflict must distinguish at all times between civilians and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives.
•Article 8(2)(b)(i) and (ii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which define as war crimes intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population and civilian objects not being military objectives.
•The Fourth Geneva Convention, which provides for the protection of civilians in times of war, including against indiscriminate attacks and forced displacement.
Targeting a civilian marketplace—a space central to the survival and daily life of a community—demonstrates a blatant disregard for these international norms and protections. Such acts not only constitute war crimes but may also amount to crimes against humanity when carried out as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.
This atrocity also intensifies the already dire humanitarian crisis in Sudan. As the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has reported, Sudan is home to the world’s largest internal displacement crisis, with more than 13 million people displaced inside the country and a further 4 million forced to flee across borders. Attacks like these drive renewed waves of displacement, dismantle civilian life, and cripple access to essential goods and services.
The Sudanese Alliance for Rights calls for an immediate, independent international investigation into this attack and demands that those responsible be held fully accountable under international law. We urge the United Nations, the African Union, and all relevant international mechanisms to take decisive steps to halt such atrocities and to protect Sudanese civilians from further attacks.
We further call on all parties to the conflict to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, to end the use of airstrikes in populated areas, and to commit to the protection of civilian lives and infrastructure.
This is not just an assault on a marketplace—it is an assault on human dignity, justice, and the rule of law. The Sudanese people cannot afford another day of silence from the world.
Sudanese Alliance for Rights
04 June 2025