Kigali: Fifty-seven (57) people were killed and 86 injured in an attack Thursday afternoon on a market southwest of El Fasher, the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur – where some 3560 Rwanda peacekeepers are operating, according to witnesses and UN officials.

Gunmen reportedly stormed the area - randomly shooting in the market in the area of Tabarat while it was crowded with customers who had come from several villages to do their shopping, which resulted in the high number of dead and wounded.

Witnesses said the gunmen were wearing military uniforms and arrived at the market on Land Cruisers, horses and camels, according to Radio Dabanga. 

One witness, the omda (tribal leader) of Rwanda Camp in Tawila, said to Radio Dabanga that the attack on the market at mid-day was 'brutal and ruthless.'

He said that 'genocide' was yet again being committed. He said the death toll was large and more than sixty people were dead while others were injured. Those who carried out this act are the 'janjaweed', he said, a general term for alleged militias supported by the Sudanese government which is accused of terrorizing civilians.

He said that previously the government had objected to this market, which is in rebel-held territory, and threatened to close it. He called upon the international community and the United Nations and the Security Council to act in response to the massacre.

The omda said that about 28 of the seriously injured victims of the massacre were transferred to the hospital in El Fasher to receive treatment. Doctors Without Borders rented 8 cars for that task, he said.

After the attack on the market Thursday, gunmen continued the offensive Friday on the villages Hashaba and Birakao in the area of Tawila, forcing villagers to take refuge at the base of the UNAMID peacekeepers in Tawila.

A witness said that many victims were taken to a hospital in Tawila and remained there until a force from the army arrived in the area and decided to bury 57 bodies. Another report, disclosed by the spokesman of the UN peacekeepers, related that bodies of victims of the market massacre were being taken by relatives to Jebel Marra for burial.

Chris Cycmanick, UNAMID spokesman, told Reuters news agency that peacekeepers had received reports of the market massacre and sent a battalion of Rwandan peacekeepers to the scene.

However, the Sudan Liberation Army did not allow the Rwandans to get near. Cycmanick said that initial reports suggested about 45 people were killed in the market.

"We received reports that yesterday around 3 o'clock (1200 GMT), men on camels and horses entered a market 31 kilometres (19 miles) northwest of Tawila (in northern Darfur) and started firing randomly at people."

One UN source said there are reports that most of the casualties were from the non-Arab Fur tribe and live in a refugee camp, Reuters news agency reported.

The attack may have been part of a wider offensive against territory controlled by the Sudan Liberation Army faction of Abdel Wahid Al Nur.

However, an army spokesman who spoke to AFP news agency denied any involvement by army troops.

A military spokesman of SLA, Ibrahim al-Helu, said that the government offensive began Thursday afternoon and continued Friday with support from helicopters and Antonov aircraft. He said 74 people were killed and 152 wounded, most of them civilians.

Al Helu acknowledged a small number of SLA fighters were among the dead and claimed that in the wake of the fighting SLA still controlled the area.