Madar (Khartoum) - The death toll from Monday's drone strike on a market near Abyei, a region disputed between Sudan and South Sudan, has risen to 153, the region's Information Minister Yohana Akol Ngor confirmed on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, the BBC reported.
The minister said the attack, at around 09:30 GMT, targeted Amiet Market, also known as Al-Na'am Market, about 10km from Abyei town. The toll rose from 73 to 153, and emergency workers struggled to retrieve bodies because of fires caused by the strikes.
A military source told the BBC that the army had carried out the attack, saying the market was a fuel supply site for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The strike has raised tensions between the two countries, which jointly administer the oil-rich region, and South Sudan summoned Sudan's ambassador to lodge a formal protest. UN peacekeepers, now more than 2,800 uniformed personnel, have been in Abyei since 2011.
In neighbouring West Kordofan state, the Sudan War Observatory said 150 people were killed in drone strikes on Sunday evening, including 145 on a truck carrying around 200 mourners as it arrived in the town of Al-Dabab and five in a funeral tent, with 150 injured. The army has not responded to the allegation but says it does not attack civilians.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the UN was "alarmed" by continued drone strikes killing civilians, including children, and disrupting essential services, noting that 20 million people in Sudan face acute hunger. The war between the army and the RSF, which began in 2023, has forced more than 14 million people from their homes.
