‘Tomatoes, soap soaked in blood’: Citizens, hospital staff recount attack on Omdurman market that left at least 59 dead

“Sabreen market has been successfully burned,” a Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighter said in a video shared on Sunday by the Karari Resistance Committees. Standing beside another fighter, he gestured toward him, identifying him as the one who shelled the market. 

“Wait and see — we’ll burn two or three more markets and other civilian gatherings. I know it, and you know it,” the second fighter said, threatening residents. 

At 10:40 am on Saturday, thousands of shoppers and workers in Sabreen market were caught under RSF shelling. According to Khartoum State Health Ministry General Director Fath al-Rahman Mohamed al-Amin, speaking to Mada Masr, the attack killed 54 on the spot and injured 136 others. However, medical sources told Mada Masr that the death toll rose to 59, with 200 injured, while civil defense teams continue to search for bodies in the rubble. 

The RSF shelled the area again on Sunday evening, targeting densely populated areas in the Riyadh neighborhood along Wadi Street, in the eastern parts of the Thawrat area, a few kilometers from Sabreen market. 

Located in the Karari locality, Sabreen market opens at around 6 am, drawing residents from the Thawrat neighborhoods and northern Omdurman — some to sell their goods, others to buy daily necessities.

The market is busiest between 9 am and 3 pm, when people purchase food for breakfast and lunch. Women make up the majority of shoppers, a source from the locality told Mada Masr, as many fathers have either migrated abroad or been displaced in search of work.

In recent months, a growing number of people have returned to Omdurman from other parts of the country, adding pressure on the market. Power outages have further contributed to the crowding, as families, with no means to refrigerate food, are forced to cook daily, said Aisha al-Hadi, whose husband — a vegetable vendor from Wawsi — was among those killed in the attack. 

For over a year, RSF forces have repeatedly shelled civilian sites in Omdurman, including Sabreen market, Nao Hospital — now one of the last operational hospitals in the capital — and water distribution points.

According to a medical source in the Khartoum State government secretariat, nearly 2,000 civilians have been killed in Omdurman due to RSF shelling targeting markets and hospitals since the start of the war. The highest casualties, the source noted, have been reported in densely populated neighborhoods such as Fatihab and Thawrat.

The last attack on Sabreen market, in northern Omdurman, took place on December 9, 2024, and before that, on September 18, when health authorities reported two deaths and ten injuries. But Saturday’s attack was the deadliest.

The market was bustling as usual that morning, trader Mohamed Awad told Mada Masr, when suddenly blood mixed with the goods, bodies and injured civilians lay scattered across the market.

“The market isn’t near any military sites,” he said. “When it opened that morning, everything was normal — vendors, including children, were selling their modest goods: lemons, tomatoes, soap, laid out on the sidewalks and in alleys, trying to make a living.”

Nearby wholesale shops and small businesses were also open, Awad added. Since the war broke out, the market had become the largest commercial hub in Khartoum, he said, as other markets were looted and shut down.

“Out of nowhere, shells started coming down from the direction of western Omdurman, which is under RSF control. Tomatoes, soap and other goods were soaked in blood,” he said. “The casualties included women, children and the elderly — some were siblings and members of the same family.”

“The market was hit at its busiest hour,” journalist Shaza al-Rasheed, who lives near the market, told Mada Masr, describing the attack as “horrific.”

"As shop owners, vendors and workers began their workday, and as civilians flocked in for their daily needs — right at that moment, when the crowd was at its peak — the RSF shelled the market and the people inside.”

Three shells were fired, she said. Two struck the vegetable market, while the third hit near a fuel station. Rasheed also said that the shells were launched from western Omdurman, specifically from the area west of Libya market, the largest of the last RSF strongholds remaining in the city.

“People in Omdurman have learned to live under shelling,” Rasheed added. “But this was the worst of all, beyond anything they could handle.”

She noted that during previous attacks, residents had developed strategies — evacuating streets and marketplaces at the first moments of the shelling, shutting down shops and halting movement. Yet, life would quickly resume, with streets filling up again soon after, she added.

Other neighborhoods in Omdurman under Sudanese military control have faced near-constant shelling from RSF positions in western Ombada and, previously, in Bahri. Hundreds of civilians have been killed and injured, according to official reports and medical and human rights organizations.

In a statement on Saturday, the RSF denied any connection to the shelling, adding that all artillery fire on the Thawrat area was launched from the Sudanese military’s positions, “intended to cover up their own crimes.”

Overwhelmed hospitals struggle to cope

The attack at Sabreen left the city in shock. The lone major hospital still functioning in the area  — understaffed, supported by volunteers and lacking essential medical supplies — was overwhelmed by the influx of casualties.

While the state’s Health Ministry General Director told Mada Masr that 54 people were killed and 136 injured in the RSF’s shelling, a nurse at Nao Hospital, who was on shift on Saturday, said that the death toll had risen to 59, including four children and 12 women. Nearly 200 wounded civilians were rushed to Nao and Sawaed hospitals.

More than 50 people required emergency surgeries and hospitalization, while others were treated and discharged, she said.

“The number of injured was so high that nurses and doctors from other departments rushed to assist in the emergency unit,” the nurse said. “We needed surgical tools, medication and blood units. Volunteers from across Omdurman flocked to the hospital to donate blood and help out.”

A medical source at Nao Hospital told Mada Masr that the facility treated more than 100 injured people, some in critical condition. The hospital called in additional medical staff to perform emergency surgeries, the source added, and the Health Ministry supplied emergency drugs and medical supplies.

A doctor at Sawaed Hospital, which also received casualties, told Mada Masr that 31 surgeries were performed on Saturday to remove shrapnel from those wounded in the RSF shelling.

The most harrowing sight, the nurse from Nao Hospital said, was in the facility’s morgue and just outside it.

“Families of the deceased arrived one by one, searching for loved ones who had left home for mere hours, either to work or to shop,” she said. “Volunteers lifted sheets off the bodies one by one, as shock, grim silence and fear engulfed all.”

“There were children looking for their parents and siblings, mothers searching for their children and others trying to find their friends,” she said. “Some of the bodies were in pieces, identified with great difficulty.”

Nao Hospital is one of the few operational medical facilities in war-ravaged Khartoum, and as such, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and local volunteers worked to expand its capacity by setting up makeshift wards using large plastic tents. They also provided additional medical equipment, tools and medications.

MSF Secretary General Christopher Lockyear was at the hospital when vehicles began bringing in the wounded after the RSF attack.

“What I see in front of me is a scene of utter carnage,” Lockyear said on X, “Yet another tragic example of this relentless war on people.”

“I can see the lives of men, women and children torn apart with injured people lying in every possible space in the emergency room,” he said. “Medics are doing what they can, but there are dozens and dozens of people with devastating injuries, the morgue is full of dead bodies.” 

Another medical source told Mada Masr that the death toll was likely to rise in the coming hours, as civil defense teams found more bodies inside shops at Sabreen market.