Drone strike on Sudan market kills at least 73

A drone attack on a market in the disputed Abyei region on the Sudan-South Sudan border killed at least 73 people and wounded 19, local official Yohana Akol Ngor said on Tuesday, blaming Sudan’s army without offering evidence.

A person wounded in a drone strike on a market in the disputed Abyei region along the border between South Sudan and Sudan is carried to Ameth Bek hospital, October 20, 2026.

REUTERS/Medecins Sans Frontieres/Handout via REUTERS

Ngor, Abyei’s acting information minister, said the strike took place on Monday.

South Sudan’s foreign ministry said the target was a market north of Abyei town, without giving a casualty figure. Juba summoned Sudan’s ambassador to register “firm protest and deep concern” over the impact on civilian security and regional stability.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said more than 20 wounded people, some in critical condition and others with burns, had been taken to the nearby Ameth Bek hospital.

The oil-rich area is claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan and administered jointly by them. Violence there is frequent, typically involving clashes between ethnic groups or armed factions.

The attack comes as Sudan’s civil war, which began in April 2023 as a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, continues to displace people. The United Nations says about 14 million have been forced from their homes and calls the situation the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

(jh)

Source: PAP