Casualties at the cattle market

A drone strike hit a cattle market in Nyala, a city in Sudan's Darfur region controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), on Friday, 16 October. According to hospital medical sources, 30 people were killed and 47 others were wounded, and the injured were being treated at the city's hospital. An anonymous medical source told AFP that the attack came on Friday morning, when traders and buyers were arriving in large numbers. The source did not say who carried out the strike, and both the medical and the military sources spoke on condition of anonymity.

Killed30

Injured47

Killed

30 people

Injured

47 people

Data from the article text

Competing accounts of responsibility

The RSF blamed the army for the attack. In a statement, the group said early information showed women and children were among the victims, and it accused the army of striking a densely populated civilian area with a drone of Turkish manufacture. The army confirmed that it had intensified its air strikes on RSF positions in Nyala on Friday, but a military source said those strikes targeted only military objectives. That source also said the army had struck the city's airport two days earlier, on Wednesday, 14 October.

The war and the drone campaign

The army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has fought the RSF militia of Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, a former deputy of Burhan, since April 2023. Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including attacks on civilians, and tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict. More than 11 million people have fled their homes, and the two forces have waged fierce battles across the country. Both the army and the RSF increasingly rely on drones to hit targets far from the front lines, which lets them strike enemy-held territory without deploying ground troops. Nyala is Sudan's second-largest city and the capital of South Darfur, and it hosts the seat of a parallel administration that the paramilitaries set up in 2025.

Geneva peace meeting

The UN and Switzerland will host a coordination meeting on Sudan peace initiatives in Geneva on Wednesday, 21 October. The meeting is the sixth of its kind, and the previous rounds took place in other countries. About 27 delegations are expected at the Palais des Nations, but the parties to the conflict will not attend. Naila Hajjar, an aide to UN envoy Pekka Haavisto, told reporters in Geneva on Friday that the agenda covers efforts to reduce fighting, the political process, and how the different initiatives can reinforce one another. Countries expected to attend include the Quad members: the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.