Madar (Geneva) - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has condemned an escalation of drone strikes across Sudan in October, which killed at least 306 people and injured hundreds more in the first three weeks of the month, UN News reported on Friday, October 23, 2026, citing his office.
The strikes, attributed to both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), hit homes, markets, hospitals, displacement sites, power stations and water sources in Kordofan, Darfur, Blue Nile, Khartoum and other states. Drones are "already accounting for the majority of conflict-related civilian deaths in Sudan this year," Türk said, calling the toll "deeply disturbing."
According to his office, at least 25 civilians were killed between October 6 and 10 in alleged strikes attributed to government forces on displacement shelters in Ghubeish and El Nuhud, West Kordofan, and at least 31 people, mostly women and children, on October 9 in an alleged RSF strike near a displacement site in Abu Shendi, Blue Nile. On October 18, at least 139 people were killed when a transport truck was hit in a "double tap" strike in Dibab, an RSF-controlled area of West Kordofan.
In Abyei, a drone attack on Amiet market and the Todach area on October 19 killed more than 80 people, according to the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA). In a statement released on Friday, the Security Council condemned the attack "in the strongest terms," warned that the toll was expected to rise, said attacks on civilians may amount to war crimes and called for a prompt and transparent investigation.
Türk urged both parties to the conflict and their affiliates to commit to a ceasefire, saying broader peace efforts "must squarely address the continued influx of arms that is fuelling the conflict."
