Drone strike kills 30 at cattle market in Sudan's Darfur

Mohamed Ali Hamza, 29, who was injured during airstrikes on a gold mine on the Sudan-Egypt border on October 11, receives treatment in Wad al-Hulaywah, Kassala State in eastern Sudan on October 16, 2026. [AFP]

A drone strike on a cattle market in Sudan's Nyala killed 30 people on Friday, a medical source told AFP, in one of the deadliest attacks on the paramilitary stronghold in the western Darfur region.

The Rapid Support Forces blamed the attack on the army, while a military source acknowledged an uptick in strikes on the area, without claiming responsibility.

Both the RSF and the army, at war since April 2023, have increasingly used drones to launch far-reaching attacks without sacrificing their fighters.

Nyala, Sudan's second-largest city and the capital of South Darfur state, serves as the seat of the self-declared administration established by the RSF last year.

"The drone strike on the city's cattle market today killed 30 people and wounded 47 others, who are receiving treatment at the hospital," a medical source at Nyala Hospital told AFP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.

The source did not say who was responsible for the attack.

The strike hit the livestock market on a Friday morning, when traders and shoppers typically crowd the area and roadside stalls serve grilled meat, a popular breakfast in Darfur.

The RSF accused the Sudanese army of carrying out Friday's attack using a Turkish-made drone.

In a statement, the paramilitary group said the strike targeted a densely populated civilian area, adding that preliminary reports indicated 17 women and five children were among the dead.

A military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the army had intensified strikes against RSF positions inside Nyala on Friday.

The source said the military had also targeted Nyala airport 48 hours earlier, adding that all attacks were aimed at military objectives.

Drone warfare

Sudan's war, now in its fourth year, has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced more than 11 million and triggered what the United Nations has described as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

More than 1,100 people were killed in drone attacks across Sudan during the first half of this year alone, according to the UN.

Nyala has come under repeated drone attacks in recent months as the army seeks to challenge RSF control over Darfur.

The paramilitary group seized most of the region last year after capturing El-Fasher, the last major Darfur city previously held by the army, in an offensive that UN experts said bore "the hallmarks of genocide".

The latest strike comes as fighting intensifies in several parts of the country, including the strategic Kordofan region linking Darfur to central and eastern Sudan.

On Thursday, an army Antonov aircraft struck a house in the paramilitary-controlled village of Abu Zaeima in North Kordofan, killing five children from the same family and wounding their mother, according to the rights group Emergency Lawyers.

Recent attacks in Kordofan have also hit a shelter for displaced people and a university dormitory, killing at least 15 people, the group said.