'Neither the Sudanese military, nor the RSF take any acknowledgement of human life in this war'

The death toll at the scene of a drone strike on a busy market is expected to rise. So far, at least 153 people are confirmed killed at the Amiyet market in Abyei. It's in a disputed territory on the Sudan, South Sudan border. The impact of the drone triggered the detonation of a nearby fuel depot. The effect was devastating. A crowded market erupted in fire and chaos when a drone struck both the market and a nearby fuel depot on Monday. Merchants tried to escape with what they could. Two days later, this footage shows the aftermath. Buildings and stalls reduced to a tangle of metal and rubble. This is my stall, and it was destroyed by the drone. It was a restaurant and a tea stall, and it's how I earned my daily wage and fed my children. And now it's gone. The market is located in the disputed Abyei region, near South Sudan's border with Sudan. Local officials blamed the Sudanese army for the attack, marking one of the bloodiest weeks in a war that spilled across Sudan's borders. Fires were still burning when regional officials came to see the damage for themselves. It's truly heartbreaking to witness such events. This is a profound tragedy that brings deep sorrow to the families of the victims and those who have lost their loved ones. In addition to the dead, dozens of others were injured. At Saint-Saëns Frontieres, our Doctors Without Borders posted photos of medical workers treating some of those who were hurt. Meanwhile, the UN condemned the attack. These attacks are taking a devastating toll on communities already struggling with the consequences of more than three years of conflict. For its part, the Sudanese military said it had carried out a drone strike targeting fuel tankers arriving from South Sudan that it claimed were bound for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Violence between the RSF and the Sudanese army erupted in 2023, and in Geneva on Wednesday, representatives from more than two dozen countries gathered for talks aimed at halting the violence. With millions of people displaced and hungry, the UN has called it the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Let's get some analysis of this story. Jan Pospisil joins us, a Sudan affairs analyst at the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform. Thank you, Jan, for being with us here on France 24. We appreciate your time. It's not clear from reporting, but who do you think carried out this attack on Sudan's military? Was it Sudan's military? It looks very likely from all what we have heard. It's not entirely clear yet, but the storyline that they wanted to deliberately attack fuel depots is very likely. We have to take into account that basically rapid support forces, so the militia facing the Sudanese army in the Sudanese war, organizes quite a significant amount of their petrol supply through Abyei. I got told by a UN official a while back that before the war, there was two petrol stations in Abyei. Now there are more than 30, and they are mostly used by pickup trucks from Rapid Support Forces to bring fuel up north. It's a private enterprise. It's not that anybody in Abyei would do it or there's an organized kind of South Sudanese endeavor to support RSF here. It's a really private market endeavor. But it is indeed, too, I would say that the RSF petrol supply lines run through Abyei and that it might be likely that this was the target of this drone strike. Because I know, again, from representatives of the Sudanese armed forces here in Juba, where I am at the moment, that they are very unhappy with the situation. So this could be a likely story. It's apocalyptic how it looks, isn't it? 153 people at least have been killed and this figure is set to rise. It is a tragedy for the whole region, the whole area. I'm wondering if, I mean, would it have been possible for whoever was targeting that site? And let's presume it's the Sudanese military. And let's presume they're targeting that fuel supply for the rapid support forces, the people they're fighting in the civil war since April 2023. Let's presume that's the case. Would they have known there was a market nearby? Would they have known about the threat to civilian lives? Well, what we see here is what observers know for a while. It's neither the Sudanese armed forces nor RSF that take any responsibility or any acknowledgement of human life in this war. It's one of the most devastating wars on the planet for sure. I have heard today there are already demonstrations planned here in Juba in front of the Sudanese embassy for tomorrow and the day after. This could escalate here as well. We had last time when South Sudanese workers got killed in Janaina during the liberation there. There had been violent protests here in Juba for two days. It's very likely this is going to come up here now again over the next days. We'll see how it happens. But it shows, you know, the Sudanese army for a long, tries to portray a picture internationally and also in front of the UN that they are human, whereas the RSF is committing all these atrocities. Here, I think we see very clearly that there's not much in between these two. And this is a real example of how this has become a cursed area. I wanted to ask you about the nature of this part of the world, this disputed territory on the Sudan-South Sudan border. But it seems that there might actually be three parties arguing over it. The Sudanese military, as opposed to sort of the actual internationally recognized government, the RSF or South Sudan. Give us a sense of how this breaks down, because if you're living there, it must be an incredibly, well, difficult place to be. It has, and we have to take into account that even worse, there have been fighting among South Sudanese communities, among Dinka communities around Abyei and Ahmed Market as well. So Ahmed Market had, over the last two years, fighting with Tutsch, Dinka communities down south, within South Sudan. And during the war, like before the war, there had been an understanding that Abyei was half controlled by the South Sudanese army and half controlled basically by Sudan, and which was never recognized there is a peacekeeping force and peacekeeping force so officially nobody would say that but de facto it was like that uh in the war then the Sudanese army got uh kicked out of this territory by rapid support forces and now it's rapid support forces together with Misseriya tribal tribal militias that control all areas north of Abyei river and this is why it developed in such a petrol and other kind of smuggling depots in this area There was a few people really making money out of it. I mean, that's one of the problems. But this area hasn't been without fighting, without war now for a very, very long time. It's indeed, Abyei, it's just a tragedy. 2011, since South Sudan declared its independence, if I'm not correct, and I'm sure you're correct because you're the expert. And this situation as it stands, clearly, for ordinary people is incredibly difficult. And I'm thinking about who would have supplied that drone, because clearly they're not produced on Sudanese soil. Who would be the sort of the armament supplier behind that, do you think? Both sides have invested a lot in drones. We know that the RSF got drones facilitated by the Emirates from China. On the other hand, we know that the Sudanese army gets their drones from Turkey, partly even without direct payment. This is supplies for future considerations. They had for a while drones from Iran, but now it has shifted mainly to Turkey. I can't say we don't know anything here, but we know that when it came also to the fight around Khartoum and other elements that Turkish drones were used on the army side. So we might have some idea here where this might have come from. I know my question was leading towards speculation and perhaps speculation is something we shouldn't do. You mentioned, yeah, future considerations. What kind of future considerations would some group be looking for in that region? There's quite a lot at stake here. Sudan has a long coastline with the Red Sea, which is something which is at the moment under huge demand. Even Russia at the moment tries to get the naval port there sealed. But for Turkey, which has already strong investment also in Somalia further south, this is also of huge interest. We have land, we have gold, oil, not so much, but there is just a huge amount of land. And also the strategic location of Sudan as being in the middle, basically, between East Africa and Northern Africa is of enormous strategic importance. So that's why all these countries are there. And also in the course of this war, it has kind of escalated with the UAE being so strongly invested on one side. And with all what else what happens in the region, this provokes some other actors like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, partly Russia and others to invest on the other side. So there is a regional war being fought out on Sudan soil. As this is happening, one wonders, this is all you talk about the riches and the potential that there is there. And it is massive. But the people, ordinary folks, ordinary people, those who have been displaced by the civil war, it goes into millions. they have literally well a couple of dollars a day to rub together if they're lucky don't they that the poverty level is huge that's something which is which is mind-boggling in the whole region here there's a lot of money and an incredible amount of poverty and hunger literally uh being separated sometimes by a few hundred meters or kilometers it's not so much different here in South Sudan where i am at the moment it is it the displacement this war has cost in is is is is really really beyond imagination i've i've not been in Khartoum recently but i got the footage from people who had been in khartoum it still looks very very bad um there's at the moment the organized returns that the Sudanese armed forces tried to organize but there's nothing there really and in hold the four is at the moment in turmoil it's really difficult to see how to get out here people are really poor so most of them are neighboring countries. We have loads of Sudanese refugees here in South Sudan, loads are in Egypt, in Chad, in neighboring countries and the tragedies it even goes further like Djibouti and Somalia now take loads of Yemeni refugees in and this is in a way a whole region where these wars work. They're not necessarily all the same wars. They're interconnected in a way but especially the displacement levels that this region has reached at the moment are beyond imagination. Jan Pospisil, Sudan Affairs Analyst at the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform. Thank you, sir, for joining us and giving us your expertise from Juba, South Sudan. Thank you, Jan Pospisil.