Sudan’s army has been accused of carrying out drone strikes that killed more than 300 people in two separate attacks, including dozens of mourners travelling to a funeral.
The death toll from strikes on 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), the BBC reported.
In Abyei, a disputed border area between Sudan and South Sudan, 153 people were killed on Monday 19 October when drones struck a market, the region’s information minister said. The two tolls together account for the figure of more than 300.
A military source told the BBC that the army had carried out the Abyei attack, saying the market was a fuel supply site for the RSF. Ameth Bek Hospital in Abyei town has been treating the wounded.
Why the Abyei strike carries a risk beyond the casualties
Abyei is not ordinary territory. It is an oil-rich area jointly administered by Sudan and South Sudan, both of which claim ownership in a dispute that has remained unresolved since South Sudan seceded in 2011.
A strike by one country’s armed forces inside territory the other co-administers is therefore a different kind of event from a strike inside Sudan’s own states. South Sudan has summoned Sudan’s ambassador to lodge a formal protest, and the BBC reports fears that the conflict could spill across the border.
The Sudan War Observatory says the wave of attacks began on Sunday evening and that the drones were likely launched from the army-held city of Kadugli, in South Kordofan state.
Drones are becoming the weapon of choice
Despite a partial arms embargo on Sudan, foreign countries have been supplying both the army and the RSF with drones, and they are increasingly the weapon of choice in the conflict, according to the BBC’s account.
Greater Kordofan — three states in total — is a vital axis linking Darfur, controlled by the RSF, to the capital Khartoum, now in army hands. That makes it the natural front line as each side presses toward the other’s territory.
The rising use of armed drones comes as 20 million people face acute hunger, with a rising risk of famine in parts of Darfur and Greater Kordofan.
The war has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, killing hundreds of thousands of people and forcing more than 14 million from their homes.
A note on sourcing
The two filings behind this report are not independent of one another.
NewsFirst’s account is a republication of the BBC’s reporting, not separate newsgathering. Multiple paragraphs are reproduced word for word, and both carry the same slip — describing South Sudan as having “ceded” in 2011, where the word required is seceded. A shared error of that kind is a reliable sign that one text is derived from the other.
This matters for how the report above should be weighted. Although two newsrooms carry the story, there is effectively one chain of reporting behind it, and every figure traces to the Sudan War Observatory, the Abyei information minister, or an unnamed military source speaking to the BBC. None has been independently verified by this desk.
Readers should also note that the attacks took place on 18 and 19 October, several days before the Sri Lankan filing appeared.
Sources: Sudan army drones hit mourners and fuel market killing more than 300 people, sources say — BBC, October 20, Sudan Army Drones Hit Mourners and Fuel Market Killing More Than 300 People — NewsFirst, October 22.
