KHARTOUM: Sudan’s regular army denied targeting civilians on Tuesday after at least 270 people died in an airstrike on a market in Tora in North Darfur.
“False claims such as this arise whenever our forces exercise their constitutional and legitimate right to engage hostile targets,” military spokesman Nabil Abdallah said. “We abide in our air strikes by the rules of targeting in accordance with international law, and we absolutely cannot target innocent civilians.”
The army has been fighting the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023, and both sides have been accused of war crimes. The conflict has killed at least 150,000 people and displaced about 12 million.
The strike in Darfur came days after the army reclaimed the presidential palace in Khartoum in a major victory over the paramilitaries. North Darfur state capital El-Fasher, 40 km south of Tora, is the only regional state capital the Rapid Support Forces have not captured, despite besieging the city for ten months and regularly attacking the displacement camps that surround it.
Sudan army denies killing civilians in market attack
Sudan army denies killing civilians in market attack
- At least 270 killed in airstrike in North Darfur amid conflict with paramilitary rivals
Lawyers in Sanaa face Houthi repression: report
- Claims of arbitrary arrests and detentions, direct threats
- 159 Houthi violations in 2025, 88 in 2024, 135 in 2023
RIYADH: In Yemen, the Houthis are attacking lawyers, raising widespread concerns about the rule of law and state of the justice system, Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Tuesday.
“Recent reports from local human rights organizations have revealed a recurring pattern of systematic restrictions on the practice of (the) law profession, including arbitrary arrests, prolonged detentions, and direct threats,” according to Arab News’ sister publication.
The publication added that the situation “in Sanaa and other Houthi-controlled cities no longer provides a professional environment for lawyers who themselves are now subject to questioning or targeted for defending their clients, especially in cases of a political or human rights nature.”
The Daoo Foundation for Rights and Development organization have reported more than 382 Houthi violations against lawyers in Sanaa from January 2023 to December 2025.
These include arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention without legal justification, threats of murder and assault, preventing them from practicing law, and restrictions on the right to defense in cases of a political or human rights nature.
The report stated that there were 159 Houthi violations against lawyers in 2025, 88 in 2024 and 135 in 2023, which was described as a “systematic pattern.”
Local and international human rights organizations have called for urgent intervention to protect the legal practitioners in Yemen.
“Human rights activists believe that protecting lawyers is a prerequisite for maintaining any future reform or political path because the absence of an independent defense means the absence of justice itself,” Asharq Al-Awsat reported.
