Drone Strikes Hit Markets in Nyala and Abyei on Monday; Local Officials Count More Than 100 and 153 Dead

Since Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) went to war in April 2023, the conflict has produced what the U.N. calls the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with about 34 million people needing assistance. Monday, Oct. 26, added two more mass-casualty strikes on markets, in two different places.

Nyala: more than 100 reported dead

Around 8 p.m. Monday, a drone struck a busy market in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF). A second strike hit a civilian neighborhood, the group said.

Emergency Lawyers, a rights group that tracks violence in Sudan, said in a Tuesday statement that more than 100 people were killed and 113 injured at Tanqong Market in the Dumaya neighborhood. It blamed the Sudanese military and called for an independent investigation. The group said many of the dead and wounded were women and children.

Dr. Alaa al-Din Nugud, health minister in the RSF-aligned Tasis administration, put the toll at 102 civilians killed and 113 injured. Nyala is RSF-controlled, so that administration is an interested party.

MSF's numbers are lower because they cover only what reached its hospital. Nyala Teaching Hospital, which MSF supports, received 36 bodies, 21 of them in civilian clothing, and its emergency room saw more than 150 wounded patients. Staff described shrapnel wounds and severe burns, with the injured arriving on tuk-tuks and donkey carts.

Adam Musa Obama of the Darfur Victims Organization said eyewitnesses told him army-linked drones hit the market. His group had documented 14 civilian deaths so far, he said, while witnesses reported 120 killed or wounded.

"This massacre transformed a civilian marketplace into a scene of mass killing and injury," Emergency Lawyers said in its statement.

MSF said the strike follows an Oct. 16 drone hit on Al Mawashi market in Nyala. Such attacks, the group said, are hindering access to food and supplies as malnutrition grows.

Abyei: 153 reported dead and a fire still burning

The second strike hit Amiet Market, north of Abyei town, in a border region claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan. It struck around 11 a.m. Monday and hit a nearby fuel depot, according to Yohanna Akol Ngor, the Abyei administration's caretaker information minister.

Ngor told the Associated Press by phone Tuesday that 153 deaths had been recorded and that the toll was still climbing. The fire was still burning Tuesday. He blamed Sudan's military.

The army's version is different. A senior Sudanese military officer, speaking anonymously, said the army struck fuel tankers arriving from South Sudan that he said were bound for the RSF. He said the dead were RSF members and people involved in fuel smuggling. "We do not target civilians," he said. He also said the strike was outside the demilitarized zone along the border.

That account is unverified. The AP could not confirm the targets or who was killed, and the officer did not give his name.

South Sudan's Foreign Ministry also blamed the army. It said the attack hit multiple locations within the market, causing civilian casualties and extensive property damage. It summoned Sudan's ambassador and urged Khartoum to "refrain from any actions that endanger civilian lives and property." The ministry wants Abyei issues handled through diplomatic channels.

MSF's Dr. Christian Lindauer said the group's teams at Ameth Bek Hospital, working with South Sudan's Health Ministry staff, had received more than 20 wounded, including several critical cases and burn patients. Amiet Market is a trading hub for the Ngok Dinka and Misseriya communities.

Abyei's status was left unresolved by the 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of civil war. It remained unsettled when South Sudan became independent in 2011.

Drones are hitting infrastructure on both sides

Both the army and the RSF have escalated drone attacks in recent weeks, according to the Associated Press, with hundreds killed. Explosive-laden drones have hit hospitals, dams, schools, markets and displacement camps. The U.N. says drones are now the deadliest threat to civilians in the war.

Tuesday brought another example in the capital. Large parts of Khartoum lost electricity for more than 12 hours after a drone struck the Al-Markhiyat transformer station in Omdurman, according to an electric company official who spoke anonymously. The official blamed the RSF and said it was the second hit on that station this year. The state-run Sudanese Electricity Distribution Company acknowledged "serious damage and technical faults" but did not give a cause.

Hospitals and bakeries were left running on generators, and water supplies were limited across the city. MSF said the RSF has reportedly struck electricity infrastructure in Khartoum, Al Jazirah, Gedaref, Sennar and White Nile states in recent days.

What is unresolved

The Nyala figures range from MSF's 36 bodies at one hospital to more than 100 dead from Emergency Lawyers and the Tasis administration. Nobody has yet reconciled those counts. The Abyei toll came from one local official and was still rising while the fire burned.

Emergency Lawyers has asked for an independent investigation into the Nyala strike, and no such inquiry has been announced. The next test is whether South Sudan's diplomatic protest to Sudan's ambassador leads to any formal talks over Abyei.