media (The Guardian with AFP, Oct 19; witness and medical source quoted, no official toll) · official (UN Security Council briefing, Oct 16)
Drone strike near a market in al-Dibab, Sudan, kills 80, a medical source says
The drone came twice, ten minutes apart, to the place where people wait for rides home after market day. A medical source puts the dead at 80.
Key facts
- Toll
- 80 killed, according to a medical source quoted by the Guardian and AFP; no official toll yet
- Where
- A transport hub near the market in al-Dibab, West Kordofan; struck twice, 10 minutes apart, Sunday evening Oct 18 (witness)
- Wounded
- 47 taken to al-Mujlad, 30 of whom died, per the medical source; a separate strike on al-Mujlad injured four
- Blame
- The RSF-declared Tasis administration accused the army; West Kordofan is under RSF control
50 bodies who I helped bury, one of them my own brother Mohamed.
Ahmed Wadi, witness, to the Guardian, Oct 19
Note
A drone struck twice near a market in the town of al-Dibab in West Kordofan, Sudan, on Sunday evening, October 18, hitting a transport hub where people gather for rides back to their villages after market day. A medical source quoted by the Guardian and AFP said 80 people were killed.
A witness, speaking over a satellite link through a communications blackout, said he helped bury 50 bodies, including his brother, and that 47 wounded were taken to the nearby town of al-Mujlad. The medical source said 30 of them died. A second strike on al-Mujlad injured four.
West Kordofan is under the control of the Rapid Support Forces, whose declared Tasis administration blamed the Sudanese army. There is no official toll from the government or the UN yet.
The count comes from people who buried the dead. No one official has confirmed it yet.
Why it matters
If the count holds, this is one of the deadliest single strikes of Sudan's war, in a state cut off by a communications blackout, where drones now cause most civilian deaths.
Sources
- The Guardian: Drone attack near market kills 80 in Sudan (Oct 19 2026, with AFP)
- UN News: Security Council briefing, Sudan's war spreads as drones and hunger take a deadly toll (Oct 16 2026)
Primary + secondary attribution as listed.
More: Armed conflict
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