Dozens of people have been killed in an air strike on a market in North Darfur in western Sudan, according to the United Nations and local rights groups.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said on Tuesday that “dozens” of casualties were reported after the attack late on Monday on a market in the town of Tora, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of el-Fasher city.

Emergency Lawyers, a pro-democracy network which has been documenting abuses by both sides in Sudan’s nearly two-year civil war, said on X that “hundreds” of civilians were killed and dozens of others were wounded in the attack on the town of Tora. It blamed the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for the attack.

“This deliberate targeting of civilians constitutes a systematic war crime and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law,” said the lawyers’ network.

Nabil Abdullah, a spokesperson for the Sudanese military, told The Associated Press news agency that civilians had not been targeted, claiming that the allegations were “incorrect” and are raised whenever the army exercises its “constitutional and legal right to deal with hostile targets”.

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Al Jazeera could not independently verify the death toll.

Local rights group Darfur Victims Support shared a video on social media that appeared to show charred bodies strewn across the ground. It accused the military of carrying out an air strike.

The attack follows two other deadly strikes on civilians since the military retook the presidential palace in central Khartoum from the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last week.

On Monday, Emergency Lawyers accused the RSF of shelling a mosque in the East Nile district of Khartoum, killing at least five people and injuring dozens of others as they conducted their evening prayers.

On Sunday, the RSF also pounded Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city, killing three civilians in what witnesses described as some of the heaviest bombardments in recent months.

Sudanese government forces have recently made advances in the conflict with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), seizing strategically important areas in the east of the country, including large parts of the capital, Khartoum.

The RSF maintains control over much of the country’s western region, and Darfur in particular, where it is working to establish its own government along with allies.

Human rights organisations accuse both sides of serious human rights violations, such as sexual violence and the arbitrary shooting of civilians.

The conflict has caused the world’s largest refugee crisis, with 12.9 million people displaced since it began in April 2023, according to the United Nations.

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