Abyei Drone Strike Kills at Least 153 as Sudan Attacks Top 300 Dead

Abyei drone strike: A drone strike on a crowded market in Abyei, the oil-rich area disputed by Sudan and South Sudan, killed at least 153 people on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, according to the area’s caretaker information minister, Yohana Akol Ngor. The attack capped a wave of drone strikes that, by several counts, has killed more than 300 people since Sunday evening.

Ngor told Reuters and the Associated Press on Tuesday that the toll from the attack on Amiet market, about 10 kilometers (six miles) north of Abyei town, had risen from 73 to 153 and was likely to rise further. “The fire is still burning. So the recovery process of the dead ones is still continuing,” he told Reuters, adding that some bodies had been burned to ashes. South Sudan’s Eye Radio later quoted him as putting the toll at 226; that figure has not been independently verified.

Who carried out the strikes

Ngor blamed Sudan’s army, without providing evidence, according to Reuters and The Guardian. A Sudanese military source told the BBC the army had carried out the Abyei attack and described the market as a fuel supply site for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). A Sudanese military official, speaking anonymously to the AP, said the strike targeted fuel tankers bound for the RSF.

Sudan’s army has not responded to allegations about the other strikes, but said it did not attack civilians, the BBC reported. A spokesperson for the armed forces did not immediately respond to Reuters.

Mourners hit in West Kordofan

The wave of strikes began on Sunday evening in West Kordofan state, according to the Sudan War Observatory, a group that tracks the conflict. It told the BBC that a truck carrying about 200 mourners was hit as it arrived in the town of Al-Dabab, killing 145 people, and that a funeral tent was also struck, killing five more. About 150 people were injured. The group said a market in the town of Al-Mujlad was also bombed, with casualties not yet known, and that the drones were likely launched from the army-held city of Kadugli in South Kordofan.

BBC Verify said it had reviewed satellite images of the area. Reuters verified video filmed at Amiet market on Tuesday showing charred and twisted vehicles and buildings, with flames still rising from one building.

Tensions between Sudan and South Sudan

Sudan and South Sudan jointly administer Abyei and both claim it, a dispute left unresolved when South Sudan became independent in 2011. South Sudan summoned Sudan’s ambassador to lodge a formal protest, the BBC reported. Eye Radio quoted Ngor as saying about 8,000 residents were displaced.

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

A war fought increasingly by drone

Sudan’s war broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF. It has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced more than 14 million from their homes, according to the BBC. Despite a partial arms embargo, foreign countries have supplied drones to both sides, and they have become a main weapon of the conflict. Our drone warfare guide explains how such weapons have changed modern conflicts, and we reported on an earlier RSF attack on civilians in Kordofan.

Greater Kordofan is a vital corridor linking RSF-held Darfur with the army-controlled capital, Khartoum, which has made its towns frequent targets for both sides.

Additional details

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) supports Ameth Bek Hospital in Abyei town, which treated people wounded in the market attack, according to a photo caption published by the BBC. Eye Radio reported that the dead were buried in two mass graves. The region’s other recent humanitarian pressures are covered in our report on Ethiopia-Eritrea border tensions.

Featured image: Abyei area. Photo: Sudan Envoy, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources

• BBC News: Sudan army drones hit mourners and fuel market killing more than 300 people, sources say
• Reuters (via Investing.com): Sudanese drone attack killed more than 150 people in Abyei market, official says
• AP: Drone strike on market in Abyei kills at least 153
• The Guardian: Drone strike kills more than 150 at market in Sudanese war
• Ynet: At least 226 reported killed in Sudan drone strike on crowded market (citing Eye Radio)