Sudan market drone strike kills 11 civilians

A drone strike on Saturday hit the main market in Abu Zaeima, a paramilitary‑controlled town in North Kordofan, Sudan, killing at least 11 civilians and wounding dozens more, according to the rights group Emergency Lawyers. The same day a second drone hit a fuel station in the state capital El‑Obeid, leaving four more civilians injured.

Neither the Sudanese army nor the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) claimed responsibility for the attacks. Emergency Lawyers said the casualty figures could rise and noted similar drone strikes on nearby villages and a civilian vehicle less than 24 hours earlier.

The strike is part of an escalating pattern of aerial attacks in Sudan’s four‑year war, which the United Nations says has killed at least 880 civilians in drone strikes nationwide between January and April 2026 and displaced more than 11 million people, creating the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises. Kordofan remains a contested region rich in oil and arable land, linking RSF strongholds in Darfur to army‑controlled areas in the east.