Sudan drone strike on Nyala market kills more than 100, rights group says

Hyderabad: More than 100 people were killed when a drone operated by Sudan’s military hit a busy market in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, on Monday evening, according to Emergency Lawyers, a rights group monitoring the conflict. The group reported 113 injuries in the attack.

Following the strike, Nyala Teaching Hospital received 36 bodies and treated more than 150 wounded patients, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said. Women and children were among the casualties. The wounded suffered shrapnel injuries, severe burns and other trauma, with some reaching the hospital in tuk-tuks and donkey carts.

Medical teams continued treating patients through the night as the scale of the attack became apparent. However, the casualty figures reported by Emergency Lawyers and the health minister of the RSF-aligned Tasis government have not been independently confirmed.

Emergency Lawyers called for an independent investigation, condemning the strike for inflicting mass casualties in a civilian marketplace. The group said the attack had compounded the hardship faced by people already living through Sudan’s prolonged conflict.

Drone warfare puts civilians and essential infrastructure at risk

Nyala is under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been fighting Sudan’s military since April 2023.

The latest strike follows another drone attack on the city’s Al Mawashi market on October 16, in which at least four people were killed, according to MSF.

Drone attacks by both sides have increased in recent weeks, leaving civilians exposed to violence and damaging facilities essential to daily life. Hospitals, schools, markets, dams and displacement camps have all been affected. The United Nations has warned that drone strikes have emerged as the deadliest threat to civilians in Sudan’s war.

The consequences have extended beyond areas directly affected by fighting. On Tuesday, a drone attack on the Al-Markhiyat transformer station in Omdurman disrupted electricity supplies across large parts of Khartoum for more than 12 hours.

The outage forced hospitals and bakeries to depend on generators and restricted access to water, further disrupting essential services. (with inputs from media agency)