KHARTOUM (AFP) — A drone attack hit two markets in paramilitary-controlled towns in southwest Sudan, killing 33 people, a medical source told Agence France-Presse on Sunday.

The strikes targeted the markets of Abu Zabad and Wad Banda in West Kordofan state — part of the resource-rich Kordofan region that is currently the fiercest battlefield in the nearly three-year war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

A doctor at Abu Zabad hospital, one of the few medical facilities still serving the area, said two drones struck the markets on Saturday, injuring 59 people.

Speaking via a Starlink connection and requesting anonymity, the doctor said 30 of the wounded remain receiving treatment. The two towns lie roughly 15 kilometers apart.

A resident of Abu Zabad town, Hamad Abdullah, said he helped bury 20 people on Saturday following what he described as an army drone strike on the town’s market.

“Four of them were my relatives who worked in the market,” he told AFP.

A military source rejected the accusations, telling AFP that the “armed forces do not bombard civilian areas.”

“This is a lie with no basis. We only target rebels, their equipment and their weapons depots,” the source said, requesting anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media.

Since war broke out in April 2023, both sides have been accused of war crimes including targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced more than 11 million and fuelled what the United Nations describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.