Drones strike a market in the disputed Abyei region and kill at least 73 people, a regional minister says

A market day in Abyei ended with dozens dead and an accusation the region cannot yet prove.

Drones struck a market north of Abyei town on Monday. “Around 73 people have been killed and 19 have been wounded. A number of drones were shot yesterday by the Sudanese armed forces,” Yohana Akol Ngor, the caretaker minister of information for the Abyei region, told Reuters on Tuesday, accusing Sudan's army of carrying out the attack. The minister did not provide evidence for who was responsible. Medecins Sans Frontieres said it had received more than 20 wounded people at the nearby Ameth Bek Hospital, including several critical cases and patients with burns, and that its teams were providing surgical care and wound dressing.

South Sudan's foreign ministry said in a statement late on Monday that drones had struck the market but did not give a civilian casualty count, and said it had summoned the Sudanese ambassador to convey the government's strong protest and deep concern about the attack and its implications for the security of civilians and the stability of the Abyei Area.

Abyei is an oil rich territory administered jointly by South Sudan and Sudan, and claimed by both. It sees frequent violence, usually from rival ethnic groups or armed militias; last year at least six Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed and eight wounded in a drone attack on a United Nations base there. Monday's strike came as part of a wider wave of drone attacks across Sudan, which the United Nations condemned the same day. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said drone strikes on Monday injured at least 19 people in a busy market in Abyei and hit several locations in Khartoum, including an area near the airport, where one civilian was reportedly killed and some flights were cancelled, and that strikes over the weekend killed at least 19 people, including 10 children, across West Darfur, South Darfur and North Kordofan.

Sudan's war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has run since April 2023, and both sides have taken to drones as their cheapest reach into territory they do not hold. Twenty million people in Sudan face acute hunger, with a rising risk of famine in parts of Darfur and Greater Kordofan, as of October 20.