Report: Drones Kill More Than 300 at a Sudan Funeral and Market
Sources put deaths in West Kordofan at 150, while an Abyei minister put the toll at Amiet Market at 153. Sudan's army faces accusations over the attacks, and South Sudan has summoned its ambassador.
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Oct 20, 22:00 UTC ·
707 words
Drone strikes reportedly killed more than 300 people in Sudan's West Kordofan and disputed Abyei, hitting funeral mourners and a market and drawing a diplomatic protest from South Sudan. [1][3]
The Sudan War Observatory said sources reported 150 deaths in two attacks in West Kordofan on Sunday evening. Abyei's information minister, Yohana Akol Ngor, separately said 153 people had died after Monday's attack on Amiet Market, bringing the combined toll to 303. [1][3]
Local officials accused Sudan's army, and an unnamed military source told the BBC that the army conducted the Abyei strike. The army has said it does not attack civilians even when it believes Rapid Support Forces fighters are among them. It had not responded to the specific Abyei allegation, according to the BBC. [1][3]
Neither the death tolls nor responsibility for the attacks has been independently established. The combined figure brings together accounts from two different sources, rather than a single verified count. [1]
The attacks were reported amid the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, which began in April 2023. They put civilian gatherings at the centre of another deadly episode while bringing the conflict into a territory whose sovereignty Sudan and South Sudan still dispute. [1][3]
A truck carrying about 200 mourners
The West Kordofan attacks began on Sunday evening, according to accounts passed to the Sudan War Observatory. At Al-Dabab, a drone struck a truck carrying about 200 people travelling to a funeral, killing 145, the group said. A separate strike on a funeral tent killed five more. [1]
The Observatory reported 150 people injured across the attacks. That is a separate figure from the 150 reported dead, and gives a sense of the scale of the emergency beyond the death count. [1]
The group also reported a drone strike on a market in Al-Mujlad that evening. It had no death or injury count for that attack, so its casualties are not included in the combined figure of 303. [1]
Monday's attack shifted attention to Amiet Market, about 10 kilometres from Abyei town. Ngor said it was struck at about 11:30 a.m. A paramount chief, a senior traditional leader of the Ngok Dinka community, said about 12 drone strikes hit the market. [3]
By Tuesday, Ngor had raised the death toll from 73 to 153. He said the victims included both Sudanese and South Sudanese civilians. The increase of 80 deaths accounts for more than half of the market's latest toll. [1][3]
Fire at the market, patients in hospital
Satellite images examined by the BBC showed extensive burnt buildings in the market's north-east corner. The BBC also verified videos showing smoke, fires and at least one petrol tanker near the market. [1]
The allegation that the market supplied fuel to the RSF came from the unnamed military source who told the BBC that the army carried out the attack. [1]
A claim about fuel supplies does not establish who was present when the drones struck. The regional minister's account describes civilians from both countries among the dead. [1][3]
Christian Lindauer of the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, said its team at Ameth Bek Hospital had received more than 20 patients. They included several people in critical condition and patients with burns. [1]
A disputed region, a diplomatic protest
South Sudan's government said it summoned Sudan's ambassador to protest over the Amiet Market attack. Its foreign ministry condemned the strike and urged Sudan to avoid actions endangering civilian lives and property. [3]
Abyei is jointly administered by Sudan and South Sudan. Its final status has remained unresolved since South Sudan became independent in 2011. The attack has brought an immediate diplomatic cost as well as a civilian one, prompting South Sudan's formal protest to its neighbour. [3]
The UN had already expressed alarm about the wider use of drones. On October 19, spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said deadly strikes were killing civilians, including children, and disrupting essential services. The UN described the growing use of armed drones against a background of acute hunger and rising famine risk in parts of Darfur and Greater Kordofan. [2]
The immediate task is to establish the toll through hospitals and emergency workers, including casualties from Al-Mujlad. Sudan's army also faces a specific unanswered allegation over Amiet Market, following South Sudan's decision to summon its ambassador. [1][3]
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