Khartoum, Dec 16 (IANS): The death toll from a drone attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a market in El Fasher, western Sudan, has climbed to 38, a non-governmental group said.

Earlier in the day, state news agency SUNA reported that a drone attack by the RSF on a market in the Awlad Al-Reef neighborhood in El Fasher killed more than 15 people and injured many others, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The death toll from the massacre in the Awlad Al-Reef neighborhood in El Fasher has risen to 38," the Coordination of Resistance Committees in El Fasher, a local non-governmental group, said in a statement.

The RSF has not commented on the incident.

Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF, which began in mid-April 2023, has killed more than 28,700 people and displaced over 14 million in the country, according to international organisations.

Earlier on December 13, At least 45 civilians were killed and 28 others injured in an artillery shelling by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on residential neighbourhoods and displacement camps in western Sudan.

"Neighbourhoods and camps in El Fasher city witnessed a significant massacre yesterday, as a result of deliberate shelling by the rebel militia, killing 45 citizens, including children and women, and injuring 28 others who were transferred to health centres," the command of the 6th Infantry Division of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) said in a statement.

According to the statement, the shelling targeted residential neighbourhoods in the southern sector of El Fasher, the Zamzam displacement camp south of the city, and the Abu Shouk camp to the north.