Sudan's army has been accused of launching several drone strikes that have reportedly killed more than 200 people, including dozens travelling to a funeral. The death toll from strikes in two areas of West Kordofan state on Sunday evening was 150, sources told the Sudan War Observatory, which tracks the conflict that erupted in 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). In Abyei, a disputed border area between Sudan and South Sudan, 73 people were killed when drones hit a market on Monday, the region's information minister said.
A military source told the BBC the army had carried out the Abyei attack, saying the market was a fuel supply site for the RSF. The attack has raised tensions between South Sudan and Sudan, which jointly administer Abyei, as they both claim ownership to the oil-rich region in a dispute that has remained unresolved since South Sudan ceded in 2011. South Sudan has summoned Sudan's ambassador to lodge a formal protest.
There are fears the conflict could spill across the border. Despite a partial arms embargo on Sudan, foreign countries have been supplying both the army and the RSF with drones and they are increasingly becoming the weapon of choice in the conflict. The war has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced more than 14 million from their homes.
"We are alarmed by the continued deadly drone strikes across the country that are killing civilians, including children, and that are disrupting essential services," UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Monday, external. The rising use of armed drones came as 20 million people faced acute hunger, with a rising risk of famine in parts of the western region of Darfur and Greater Kordofan, he said. Greater Kordofan comprises three states and is a vital axis linking Darfur, controlled by the RSF, to the capital, Khartoum, now in army hands.
A simple guide to what is happening in Sudan Drones hammer Sudan's gold and oil zone - the pivotal new front line The wave of drone attacks started on Sunday evening and, according to the Sudan War Observatory, it is likely they were launched from the army-held city of Kadugli in South Kordofan state. A truck carrying around 200 mourners which had travelled from an area north of Abyei was hit as it arrived in the town of Al-Dabab in West Kordofan, the monitoring group said. Sources told the group that 145 people were killed and a tent where mourners at the funeral had gathered was also hit, killing five others.
A further 150 people were injured in the attacks, it said. Army drones also bombed a market in the town of Al-Mujlad in West Kordofan on the same evening, according to the Sudan War Observatory, which said the exact number of deaths and injuries were not yet known. Sudan's army has not responded to the allegation it carried out these strikes, but said it did not attack civilians even if they believed there were RSF fighters amongst them.
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