Turk said that of the hundreds killed, 13 were members of a single family.

The SAF regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a battle for power since April 2023 -- fighting which has plunged Sudan into what the UN calls the world's largest humanitarian catastrophe.

"I am deeply shocked by reports that hundreds of civilians were killed and scores injured in airstrikes by the Sudanese Armed Forces on a busy market in Tora village, North Darfur, on March 24," Turk said in a statement.

"My office has learned that 13 of those killed belonged to a single family, and that some of the injured are also reportedly dying as a result of the extremely limited access to healthcare.

"We have also received reports that in the aftermath of the attack, members of the RSF arbitrarily arrested and detained civilians in Tora."

A Sudanese monitor accused the Sudanese military of carrying out one of the deadliest air strikes in the country's nearly two-year war, hitting the rebel-held town of Tora in the western region of Darfur.

The Emergency Lawyers, a group of volunteer legal professionals, said "hundreds of civilians" were killed in an "indiscriminate air strike" on the Tora market. Two residents who took part in burial operations said they had counted 270 bodies.

Turk said that despite his repeated warnings and appeals to both the SAF and the RSF to protect civilians, they "continue to be killed indiscriminately, maimed and mistreated on a near daily basis, while civilian objects remain an all-too-frequent target".

He urged both sides to take every possible step to avoid harming civilians and attacking civilian infrastructure.

"Indiscriminate attacks and attacks against civilians, and civilian objects are unacceptable and may constitute war crimes," said Turk.

"There must be full accountability for violations committed in this latest attack, and the many other attacks against civilians that have preceded it. Such conduct must never become normalised."