Africa
UN chief condemns Abyei market drone strikes: dozens of civilians killed, toll expected to rise, no perpetrator named
Guterres says the 19 October drone attacks near Amiet Market killed dozens of civilians and calls for accountability; South Sudan blames Sudan's army, which has not commented officially.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned the drone attacks of 19 October in the Abyei area, saying they killed dozens of civilians, among them women and children, near Amiet Market and Todach. In a statement published by the UN on 21 October, he said the toll was expected to rise because the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) was still verifying casualties and many people were missing. The statement does not say who carried out the attacks.
Abyei is a border area claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan and administered jointly. It lies next to Sudan’s Kordofan region, where the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in April 2023, has been concentrated.
What the UN said
Guterres said UNISFA, the peacekeeping force in the area, deployed medical personnel, firefighting capabilities and quick reaction forces to treat the injured, support their evacuation and stop the fire from spreading. He said attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are prohibited under international law. In his words: “I remind that all parties to the armed conflict must comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law, including to respect and protect civilians at all times. There will need to be accountability.”
He also called on the governments of South Sudan and Sudan “to take all steps possible to help prevent further attacks and uphold Abyei’s demilitarized status”.
Claims on the ground
The UN has given no overall casualty figure beyond “dozens” of civilians. A higher number comes from the area itself: according to the Associated Press and Reuters, Yohanna Akol Ngor, the Abyei administration’s caretaker information minister, said at least 153 people had been killed and that the toll was still rising while a fire burned at the site. That figure has not been verified by the UN.
Ngor and South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blamed the Sudanese army. The ministry said the drones hit several locations in the market, and that it had summoned Sudan’s ambassador and called on Khartoum to refrain from acts endangering civilian life and property. The Sudanese army had not commented officially. A senior Sudanese officer, speaking anonymously to the AP, said the army had struck fuel tankers coming from South Sudan that he said were bound for the RSF, that those killed were RSF members and fuel smugglers, and that the army does “not target civilians”. The AP said it could not verify his account. The RSF had not commented.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said its teams at Ameth Bek Hospital had received more than 20 patients, several in critical condition, including people with burns.
Earlier coverage
The strike on the Abyei market was first reported in the UN’s account of a wave of drone attacks across the country, covered in UN condemns drone strikes across Sudan: market hit in Abyei, Khartoum targeted, 10 children among 19 reported dead over the weekend. On 21 October, talks on a Sudan ceasefire and transition continued in Geneva, where the UN described the conflict as a “drone war”.