Sudan drone strikes on a funeral convoy and a fuel market kill more than 300 people
A wave of drone attacks blamed on Sudan's army hit mourners in West Kordofan on Sunday and a market in the disputed Abyei area on Monday. South Sudan has summoned Sudan's ambassador, and the UN warns that civilians are paying the price.
More than 300 people have reportedly been killed in two days of drone strikes in Sudan and the disputed border region of Abyei, in one of the deadliest episodes of the war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since it began in 2023.
On Sunday evening, drones struck a truck carrying around 200 mourners as it arrived for a funeral in Al-Dabab, West Kordofan, according to the Sudan War Observatory, which monitors the conflict. The group said 145 people died in the truck and five more when a funeral tent was hit; about 150 were injured. A market in the town of Al-Mujlad was bombed the same evening, with casualties still unknown.
On Monday morning, drones hit Amiet Market, about 10 km from Abyei town. The area's information minister, Yohana Akol Ngor, said the death toll had climbed from 73 to 153. A military source said the army carried out the strike, describing the market as a fuel supply point for the RSF. The army says it does not target civilians. Satellite images reviewed by the BBC show large burnt areas of the market, which traders say is normally packed with trucks.
Abyei, an oil-rich area claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan and patrolled by more than 2,800 UN peacekeepers, is supposed to be a weapons-free zone. South Sudan has summoned Sudan's ambassador in protest, raising fears that the war could spill across the border.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the world body was alarmed by repeated drone strikes that are killing civilians, including children. The war has already killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced more than 14 million and left about 20 million facing acute hunger, with famine risk rising in Darfur and Greater Kordofan.