Sudan rights group says army drone strike on Nyala market killed more than 100, 113 hurt

A Sudanese rights group says a drone attack by the Sudanese army on a busy market in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, killed more than 100 people and injured 113, many of them women and children, according to an Associated Press report. The group, Emergency Lawyers, called for an independent investigation. Its toll has not been independently confirmed.

What is reported

• Rights group: Emergency Lawyers blamed the army and said a civilian marketplace was turned into a scene of mass killing and injury, per AP.
• Doctors Without Borders: said 36 bodies arrived at its Nyala hospital and it treated about 150 injured people in its emergency room, per AP.
• Army: AP's report carried no response from the Sudanese army, and we found none.
• Timing: AP describes the strike as Monday evening; Radio Dabanga, dated Oct. 27, places it on Tuesday. We cannot reconcile the two.

Radio Dabanga, which sources the "more than 100" figure to the Sudan Liberation Movement Transitional Council, names the site as Tangong Market in the Dumaya neighbourhood and says other sources reported that fighters of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were among the dead. It does not attribute the strike to any party. Nyala is controlled by the RSF, which has fought the army since 2023, AP says.

The wider picture

AP reports the UN says drone strikes have become the deadliest threat to civilians in the war, and that both sides have escalated their use. Radio Dabanga cites the UN Human Rights Office as recording more than 306 deaths from drone attacks in the first three weeks of October. AP also says the UN estimates about 34 million people, nearly two in three Sudanese, need assistance, and the IPC warns of famine risk in parts of Darfur and Kordofan.

Separately, AP reports a drone strike on the Al-Markhiyat transformer station in Omdurman left parts of Khartoum without power for more than 12 hours on Tuesday. An electric company official blamed the RSF; the company itself cited serious damage and technical faults.

Why readers outside Sudan care: the war is a humanitarian and aid-access story more than a market one. Aid groups and more than 30 governments, including the U.S., UK and European Commission, have urged the parties to lift obstacles to humanitarian aid, per AP.

Sources: AP, Radio Dabanga. Casualty figures are attributed to the groups that gave them and have not been verified by the Chronicle.