Sudanupdated 1h ago3 min read
Rapid Support Forces Drone Strike Kills Three Children in Khartoum’s Imtidad Nasser
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Drone strikes in Abyei killed about 150–153 people, according to local officials and outlets. UN condemned drone attacks on civilians and infrastructure; AU called for immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
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The Guardian“Yohanna Akol Ngor, the Abyei administration’s caretaker information minister, blamed Sudan’s military”
“Local officials warned that some bodies had been burned beyond recognition”
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Drones hit markets, homes
In the Imtidad Nasser neighbourhood east of Sudan’s capital Khartoum, residents described a recent drone attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that was followed by anti-aircraft fire and two huge explosions, killing three children from a family in the community. Ahmed Abdel Hamid told Al Jazeera, “We heard the buzz of drones in the sky, but did not pay attention to it at first,” as the attack unfolded. The conflict’s drone escalation has also been tied to strikes across West Kordofan and South Darfur, with Al Jazeera describing a drone strike near a market in al-Dabba town in West Kordofan that killed 80 people.
The African Union Commission said drone attacks in Sudan and Abyei continued to cause many civilian victims, and it cited reports that about 80 people were killed in Al-Dibab, West Kordofan, on October 18. The AU Commission also cited reports that a drone attack on the Amit market on October 19 left more than 150 victims, while it warned that casualty figures “remain to be independently confirmed.”
Competing claims and UN alarm
The Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary RSF have traded accusations about drone attacks, with Al Jazeera reporting that the RSF issued a statement accusing the military of using drones to carry out “massacres in the livestock market in Nyala and al-Na’am market in Abyei.” Al Jazeera also quoted a Sudanese government official saying, “The army does not target civilians, but it considers all military and logistical sites and supply lines of the Rapid Support Forces as legitimate targets,” while the fighting continues to push into residential neighbourhoods. In Abyei, South Sudan’s caretaker information minister Yohana Akol Ngor said the Amiet market attack killed 153 people and that “The fire is still burning, so the recovery process of the dead ones is still continuing.”
The United Nations condemned the drone strike pattern, and Stephane Dujarric said, “We remain alarmed by the relentless drone attacks across Sudan, as well as the damage they are causing to critical infrastructure.” The Guardian reported that the strike pushed the toll from attacks in recent days to more than 250, while it said Yohanna Akol Ngor blamed Sudan’s military for Monday’s attack on Amiet market.
Ceasefire calls and humanitarian risk
The African Union Commission chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf condemned the deadly drone strikes and called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, warning against actions that could intensify the conflict or endanger neighbouring states. Dabanga Radio TV Online said Youssouf expressed “deep concern over the civilian toll of the attacks,” and it linked the strikes to deaths, displacement, and disrupted access to food and healthcare. The AU Commission also urged all parties to protect humanitarian and medical personnel and to ensure safe, rapid, and unhindered humanitarian access in accordance with international law, including international humanitarian law.
In Abyei, the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei deployed medical teams, firefighting assets, and rapid-response forces to aid victims and limit the spread of fires after the Amiet market attack. Al Jazeera framed the drone shift as a lethal evolution in the conflict that began in April 2023, and it said the war has killed at least 59,000 people while displacing 14 million people from their homes.