Drone strike on Sudan market kills 4, injures dozens

A drone strike triggered massive explosions at a market in Sudan’s Darfur region near the Chad border on March 12th, killing four people and injuring more than two dozen civilians, according to a medical organisation, reported by the Associated Press on March 12th.

Doctors Without Borders (known as MSF) said the drone struck fuel storage at the Adikong border market in West Darfur and blamed the attack on the Sudanese army. The incident marked the second deadly drone strike in Adikong in less than a month.

Gado Mahamadou, MSF’s head of mission in Chad, reported that 23 people were wounded, including seven children and four women.

Sudan has been engulfed in war since April 2023, when long-standing tensions between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the national army erupted into fighting in Khartoum before spreading nationwide. The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, according to U.N. estimates, though aid groups believe the real death toll could be far higher.

The Darfur and Kordofan regions have become major centers of the conflict, where drone strikes, especially in Kordofan, are frequently reported. Analysts and humanitarian workers say the rising number of drone attacks in the region is increasingly harming civilians and disrupting aid efforts.

The Sudanese military has not issued an official statement about Thursday’s strike. However, two officials said military operations were underway in the area targeting RSF forces. They spoke anonymously as they were not authorised to comment publicly.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned Thursday that the growing use of drones across Sudan is taking an increasing toll on civilians.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk also expressed alarm at the rise in drone attacks, noting reports that more than 200 civilians have been killed by drones since March 4 in the Kordofan region and White Nile state alone.

On March 11th, Sudan urged the United States to designate the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as a terrorist organisation.

Associated Press, maghrebi.org