Khartoum: The state health ministry of Khartoum reported on Tuesday that 34 people, including children, were killed by random shelling in a well-known market in the Sudanese city of Omdurman.

According to the health authorities, truck drivers and dealers at the Melga Market made up the majority of the casualties.

A well-known rights organisation demanded on Tuesday that the International Criminal Court look into crimes committed in Sudan's tumultuous Darfur region, including what it claims were the "summary executions" of 28 non-Arab tribesmen in May by a Sudanese paramilitary force and affiliated Arab militias.

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Several thousand members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and their allies, according to Human Rights Watch, ransacked Misterei, a town in Darfur that is home to the non-Arab Massalit tribe, on May 28.

According to the New York-based watchdog, the attackers not only killed the tribesmen but also left dozens of civilians dead or injured. The attack happened amid months of fighting between the paramilitary and the army of Sudan, which the UN claims has pushed the country dangerously close to civil war.

According to Jean Baptiste Gallopin, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch, "the mass killing of civilians and complete destruction of the town of Misterei demonstrates the need for a stronger international response to the widening conflict."

The paramilitary force, according to Human Rights Watch, would not immediately comment on their findings. As part of its investigation into the early 2000s genocidal war in the region, HRW urged the ICC to look into the attack on Misterei and other individuals elsewhere in Darfur.

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African tribes that had long complained of discrimination rose up against the Khartoum government, who responded with a military campaign that the ICC later deemed to be genocide, sparking the start of the Darfur conflict. The Janjaweed, a state-sponsored Arab militia, has been charged with numerous rapes, murders, and other atrocities. Later on, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces were derived from the Janjaweed.

Midway through April, fighting broke out between the paramilitary and the army of Sudan, initially centred in Khartoum. Later, the fighting spread throughout Sudan, including Darfur, which witnessed some of the bloodiest combat.

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Human Rights Watch claims that Arab paramilitaries and their allies surrounded Misterei and engaged in combat with Massalit fighters while riding horses, pick-up trucks, and motorcycles. Men were killed in their homes, on the streets, or while hiding by the attackers, who were outfitted with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and machine guns mounted on vehicles.

Aside from burning the town to the ground, according to HRW, they also looted homes, stole livestock, and took valuables. The group claimed that thousands of residents, including women and children, fled as attackers opened fire on them, killing numerous others.