| June 2023 Yarmouk airstrike | |
|---|---|
| Part of Battle of Khartoum of the War in Sudan (2023) | |
| Location | Yarmouk, Khartoum, Sudan |
| Date | June 17, 2023 |
Attack type | Airstrike |
| Deaths | 30+ |
| Injured | 11 |
| Perpetrator | Sudanese Armed Forces |
On the morning of June 17, 2023, an airstrike hit a residential area of Yarmouk neighborhood in Khartoum, Sudan, during the Battle of Khartoum. The airstrike killed thirty people and injured eleven others.
Throughout the battle of Khartoum, which began in April 2023 between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudanese Air Force jets have launched airstrikes on residential areas. These airstrikes often came as the result of forced evictions by RSF fighters on civilian homes and buildings in Khartoum.[1] However, these airstrikes and artillery shelling have hit residential buildings still containing civilians, with Sudanese activists stating that SAF strikes are indiscriminate.[2] In late May, shelling from SAF-occupied areas killed between 18 and 27 civilians at a market in Mayo neighborhood. On June 8, an airstrike killed 12 civilians at the El Muweileh market in Omdurman, and on June 11, 18 civilians were killed in shelling in El Azhari and Salama neighborhoods.[3][4]
The airstrike occurred earlier in the day of June 17, before the three-day ceasefire was set to be implemented later that evening. While the initial perpetrator was unknown, doctors' committees in Khartoum later accused SAF of the airstrike.[5][6] A local medical group called The Emergency Room announced that seventeen people were killed in the airstrike, including five children.[7] This toll was corroborated by the Sudanese Ministry of Health, who also stated eleven others were wounded.[8] Twenty-five houses were also flattened in the attack, which targeted the El Ezba market south of Yarmouk.[9] The RSF alleged the SAF of being behind the airstrike, but this couldn't be verified.[10] The Southern Khartoum Emergency Room, referring to the airstrike as the "Yarmouk massacre," stated that the airstrike targeted RSF militants in the Yarmouk neighborhood.[11]
Later, the death toll grew to over 30 people killed, according to the Sudanese Doctors' Union.[11]
Following the airstrike, the three-day ceasefire from renewed negotiations in the Treaty of Jeddah went into effect.[9]