Sudan's air force has carried out bombings in which at least 1,700 civilians have died in attacks on residential neighborhoods, markets, schools, and camps for displaced people, according to an investigation into air raids in the country's civil war.
The Sudan Witness Project says it has compiled the largest known dataset of military airstrikes in the conflict, which began in April 2023.
Its analysis indicates that the air force has used unguided bombs in populated areas.
The data focuses on attacks by warplanes, which only the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) is capable of operating. Its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) does not have aircraft. It launches drone strikes, but drones were excluded from the research.
"The RSF are being held responsible for a lot of damage and violations, and I think rightly so," says Mark Snoeck, who ran the project. "But I think the SAF should also be held accountable for their actions."
The military has also faced international criticism, accused of indiscriminate bombings.
The SAF did not respond to a BBC request for comment. But it has previously denied allegations of targeting civilians, saying its airstrikes are directed solely at RSF gatherings, locations, and bases recognized as legitimate military targets.
Sudan Witness is an initiative by the Center for Information Resilience (CIR), a non-profit group that works to expose human rights violations. It received funding from the British foreign ministry for this project.
According to an advance copy of the report obtained by the BBC, Sudan Witness analyzed 384 airstrikes conducted between April 2023 and July 2025.
More than 1,700 civilians were reported killed and 1,120 injured in the incidents it documented. The group says these are conservative figures as it takes the lowest reported number.
There were 135 cases involving residential areas, with verified destruction to homes and civilian infrastructure.
In 35 instances the bombs struck markets and commercial facilities, often when they were crowded with people. And 19 strikes affected vulnerable groups in places like health facilities, sites housing displaced people, and educational institutions.
Sudan Witness acknowledges that its research is incomplete because the results reflect access to data rather than the total number of strikes. It's hard to get information from conflict zones due to poor telecommunications and the difficulty of identifying credible sources, it says, and strikes on military targets are likely to be underreported.
But it says through a rigorous methodology, it has been able to build a wider picture of the military's air campaigns, visualising the information in an interactive map that shows the scale and impact on civilian populations.
The main patterns that emerge are repeated hits on residential neighborhoods and markets, says Mr. Snoeck, as well as a large number of alleged strikes on essential humanitarian and medical facilities.
According to Justin Lynch from the Conflict Insights Group, both the SAF and RSF are alleged to be targeting civilians more than military sites, highlighting the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
