At least ten people were killed on Saturday in a drone strike that targeted a crowded market in the city of Al-Malha in North Darfur State, according to a volunteer group and eyewitnesses, reported Xinhua. "The drone strike killed ten people and injured many others, causing partial fires in a number of shops and significant material damage," the North Darfur Emergency Rooms Council, a volunteer-led humanitarian group, said in a statement. The council described the targeting of civilian markets as a "heinous crime and a dangerous escalation" against civilians, calling on humanitarian and medical organizations to move urgently to treat the wounded. The statement did not name the party that carried out the strike. An eyewitness from Al-Malha city told Xinhua on Sunday that the bombardment occurred at peak time in the late afternoon on Saturday, when the market was crowded with shoppers. He added, "The explosion caused a state of panic, and flames and smoke rose from shops near the targeted site." Another eyewitness confirmed that most of the victims were civilians, including vendors and shoppers. Al-Malha is located about 210 kilometers north of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, near the Sudanese-Libyan border. The city has been under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since March, following the withdrawal of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to the north of the country. Al-Malha holds a strategic position in the Darfur region, serving as a crossroads linking the city of Al-Dabba in northern Sudan with Hamrat al-Sheikh in North Kordofan. The city has from time to time been subjected to air attacks targeting convoys and trucks moving between the city and the Libyan border. The RSF controls the five Darfur states in western Sudan, except for parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. Sudan has been engulfed in a deadly conflict since April 15, 2023, when fighting broke out between the SAF and the RSF, leaving tens of thousands dead and millions displaced within the country and across its borders.