News24 | Drone attack on southern Sudan transport hub leaves 80 dead

Abkar Mohamed Haron, 38, who was injured during airstrikes on a gold mine on the Sudan-Egypt border on 11 October, receives treatment in Wad al-Hulaywah, Kassala State in eastern Sudan on 16 October.

AFP

• According to a medic and a witness who spoke to AFP on 19 October, 80 people, largely commuters catching rides home, died after a drone hit near a market in southern Sudan.
• The strike is one of the deadliest single attacks since war broke out in Sudan in April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
• Aid workers estimate that the conflict has killed more than 200 000 people.

A drone strike near a market in southern Sudan killed 80 people, mostly commuters catching trucks home, a medical source and a witness told AFP on 19 October.

The strike in the town of Al-Dibab in West Kordofan state on the evening of 18 October left “50 bodies who I helped bury, one of them my own brother Mohamed”, Ahmed Abakar Wadi told AFP, using a satellite internet connection to circumvent a communications blackout.

He said 47 others were transported to the nearest town, Al-Mujlad, where 30 of them died from injuries, a medical source told AFP.

“A total of 80 people were killed in the drone strike on Al-Dibab, and another drone strike on Al-Mujlad injured four who are currently being treated,” the medic said, requesting anonymity for his safety.

The attack is one of the deadliest single strikes since war broke out in April 2023 between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The RSF-declared administration, known as Tasis, accused the army of carrying out the strike. All of West Kordofan state is under RSF control.

Wadi said the drone struck twice, 10 minutes apart, “on a transport hub where people gather to travel back to their villages after the market day ends”.

There is no definite toll from the conflict as a whole, but aid workers estimate it has killed more than 200 000 people, besides creating the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.