More Than 200 Killed in Sudan as Army Drones Are Accused of Hitting Mourners and a Market

Sudan's army has been accused of launching several drone strikes that have reportedly killed more than 200 people, including dozens travelling to a funeral. In the country's ongoing war, drones are increasingly becoming the weapon of choice.

The death toll from strikes in two areas of West Kordofan state on Sunday evening was 150, sources told the Sudan War Observatory, which tracks the conflict that erupted in 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

In Abyei, a disputed border area between Sudan and South Sudan, 73 people were killed when drones hit a market on Monday, the region's information minister said.

A military source told the BBC the army had carried out the Abyei attack, saying the market was a fuel supply site for the RSF. That claim, and the strike on a market, have raised fresh tensions between the two countries.

South Sudan and Sudan jointly administer Abyei, but both claim ownership of the oil-rich region in a dispute unresolved since South Sudan separated in 2011. South Sudan has summoned Sudan's ambassador to lodge a formal protest, and there are fears the conflict could spill across the border.

Despite a partial arms embargo on Sudan, foreign countries have been supplying both the army and the RSF with drones, according to the report, and drones are increasingly becoming the weapon of choice in the conflict.

The war has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced more than 14 million from their homes.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday, 'We are alarmed by the continued deadly drone strikes across the country that are killing civilians, including children, and that are disrupting essential services.' He said 20 million people faced acute hunger, with a rising risk of famine in parts of Darfur and Greater Kordofan.

Greater Kordofan comprises three states and is a vital axis linking Darfur, controlled by the RSF, to the capital, Khartoum, now in army hands. That strategic position helps explain why fighting there has intensified.

The wave of drone attacks started on Sunday evening and, according to the Sudan War Observatory, they were likely launched from the army-held city of Kadugli in South Kordofan state. A truck carrying around 200 mourners from an area north of Abyei was hit as it arrived in the town of Al-Dabab in West Kordofan.

Sources told the group that 145 people were killed and a tent where mourners at the funeral had gathered was also hit, killing five others. A further 150 people were injured in the attacks, it said.

Army drones also bombed a market in the town of Al-Mujlad in West Kordofan on the same evening, according to the observatory, which said the exact number of deaths and injuries was not yet known. Sudan's army has not responded to the allegation it carried out these strikes, but said it did not attack civilians even if it believed there were RSF fighters among them.

The attack in Abyei took place on Monday around 11:30 local time and had killed 73 people, the region's Information Minister Yohana Akol Ngor told Radio Tamazuj. He said, 'We were surprised by bombing and thick smoke inside Amiet Common Market, which is located 10km from Abyei town.'

BBC Verify has studied satellite images that show extensive burnt buildings in the north-east corner of Amiet Market, also known in Arabic as Al-Na'am Market. Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said it had received people wounded in the attack at Ameth Bek Hospital in Abyei town; the charity's manager at the hospital, Christian Lindauer, said more than 20 patients had arrived, including several critical cases and patients with burns.

Meanwhile, a drone strike near the airport in Khartoum on Monday killed four people, including three children, according to a medical source; a military source said air defences in the capital had downed several other drones launched by the RSF towards the airport. Fighting in Kordofan, a strategic area rich in gold and oil, has intensified over the last year after the army regained control of Khartoum from the RSF.