A cargo plane was bombed on Wednesday shortly after landing at a paramilitary-controlled airport in Sudan's western Darfur region, three eyewitnesses reported.

The airport in Nyala, the South Darfur state capital, has in recent weeks come under repeated air strikes by the Sudanese military, at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023.

Neither the army, under Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, nor the RSF, commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have released information on the latest attack.

"At 5:30 in the morning, I saw a cargo plane landing on the runway," one eyewitness who lives near the airport told AFP. "Half an hour later, I heard explosions and saw smoke rising from it."

Dozens killed in 'indiscriminate' air strikes

The testimony was corroborated by two other witnesses in the area. Several others said explosions were heard across the city for about an hour.

All spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity for their safety, amid a crackdown by the RSF on the civilian population in Nyala, which the paramilitaries have controlled since 2023.

Early last month, a cargo plane reportedly resupplying the RSF garrison in the city was bombed as it landed at the airport.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday said that in recent months "indiscriminate" military air strikes had killed dozens in the city, Darfur's largest.

Sudan government accuses UAE of backing RSF

The army accuses the United Arab Emirates of arming the RSF, specifically via advanced drones arriving at the airport in Nyala.

Abu Dhabi denies it supplies weapons to the RSF, despite numerous reports from UN experts, US political officials and international organisations.

Satellite images released by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab have shown multiple Chinese-made long-range drones at the city's airport.

Sudan cut ties with the UAE last month following a series of drone attacks on its wartime capital Port Sudan on Sudan's Red Sea coast.

Humanitarian crisis

The RSF has in turn accused Egypt of arming the army, which Cairo has also denied.

Since it began, the war has killed thousands, uprooted 13 million and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

It has also effectively split Sudan in two, with the army holding the centre, north and east while the RSF controls nearly all of Darfur and, with its allies, parts of the south.