At least 21 people have been killed and more than 40 wounded in a drone strike on a market in Nyala, in Sudan's Darfur region, the AFP news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a medical source and witnesses.

Source: AFP via Barbados Gazette

A Nyala resident said the attack took place at around 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Monday at a market in the north of the city, which serves as the de facto capital of Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). "Twenty-one people were killed in last night's bombing, and more than 40 others injured," a medic at Nyala Hospital told AFP. The medic was unable to establish how many of those killed or injured were RSF fighters, and another resident told AFP the market was frequented by armed men, particularly RSF fighters.

21People killed in Monday evening's drone strike on the Nyala market, according to a Nyala Hospital medic via AFP
40+People wounded in the strike, according to the same medic
300+People killed by drone strikes across Sudan in the first three weeks of October alone, according to a UN tally reported by AFP

No claim of responsibility reported; Nyala is struck regularly

AFP did not report any claim of responsibility for Monday's strike. It noted that the Sudanese military, which has been at war with the RSF since April 2023, regularly strikes Nyala, where the RSF has declared an administration rivalling the military-backed, internationally recognised government in Khartoum. Awaaz Punjab is not attributing Monday's strike to either side, because neither claim could be independently verified from the reporting available.

Markets in Nyala have been hit before. On October 16, a drone strike on a livestock market in the city killed 30 people and wounded 47, according to medical sources at the time; the Sudanese army said it had targeted RSF command and control centres in the city, while the RSF accused the military of killing civilians, according to reporting of that earlier incident.

Source: Fact.net.in, reporting the October 16 Nyala livestock-market strike and both sides' claims

The strike comes as both sides in Sudan's war rely ever more heavily on drones. In the first three weeks of October alone, drone strikes killed more than 300 people and injured hundreds more, according to a UN tally reported by AFP. The war, which began in April 2023, has triggered what aid workers describe as the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.