A drone strike by the Sudanese army killed 53 people at a market in an area disputed between Sudan and South Sudan, local authorities said on Tuesday (October 20, 2026), the latest in a wave of deadly attacks.
Authorities in Abyei district said the strike hit Amiet market on Monday (October 19). They accused the army of launching 22 munitions during the attack, which also wounded at least 27 people.
“The casualties comprise vulnerable civilian populations, including women, children, the elderly, local merchants, members of the host Ngok Dinka community, South Sudanese returnees, and Sudanese refugees who had sought sanctuary from the broader regional conflict,” the authorities said.
On Sunday (October 18) and Monday (October 19), strikes across Sudan killed more than 100 people. The country is in the grips of a brutal war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that began in April 2023.
Abyei district is claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan, which split from its northern neighbour in 2011 following decades of conflict.
Parts of the district are controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), a splinter from the organisation that fought for Juba’s independence. The group is itself split in two, with each faction supporting opposite sides in Sudan’s war.
Juba’s Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the Sudanese ambassador over the attack, which it condemned “in the strongest terms possible”.
It accused the Sudanese army of striking multiple locations within the market, which is used as a transit point for goods to areas controlled by the RSF.
Sudan’s war has triggered the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises and killed over 200,000 people, aid workers estimate, though there is no confirmed death toll.
Multiple outside powers are accused of fueling the war with increasingly sophisticated weapons, including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey -- all of whom deny direct involvement.
Wave of strikes
Recent days have seen a string of deadly “back-and-forth attacks”, according to Sudanese analyst Kholood Khair, as both sides trade blows to strategic sites and civilian centres.
The army has hit the RSF’s de facto capital of Nyala and the homestead of commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s Rizeigat tribe in El-Daein.
The RSF has launched drones that targeted the capital Khartoum’s airport, killing four people including three children, as well as dams in the country’s southeast.
“We’ve seen this several times before. There’s a tit-for-tat, quid pro quo approach which starts the season of escalation,” Mr. Khair told AFP.
The deadliest in recent days was an army strike Sunday (October 18) evening that hit a transport hub in Al-Dibab town in the southwestern RSF-controlled state of West Kordofan, killing 80 people.
The victims were mainly villagers who had gathered after a market day to catch rides home.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned against the sophisticated drone warfare deployed in Sudan, which allows both sides to attack across Africa’s third-largest country without sacrificing their fighters.
More than 1,100 people were killed in drone attacks across Sudan during the first half of this year, according to the UN.
The UN is currently holding meetings with international organisations and key mediators -- the United States, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE -- in Geneva to coordinate peace efforts.
It is the sixth coordination meeting of its kind as the so-called Quintet -- the UN, the Arab League, the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in eastern Africa and the European Union -- tries to push for a civilian track to peace.
No ceasefire negotiations are on the horizon, while both sides suffer a stalemate on the ground.
“There’s a fight-and-talk scenario that’s favoured by Sudanese belligerents, and you see that taking place. Both still believe that they can win militarily,” Mr. Khair said.
The RSF last year consolidated its control on Darfur, and has pushed to gain territory in the Kordofan region and the Blue Nile, which borders Ethiopia to the southeast.