Drone strikes in Sudan's West Kordofan state killed 150 people on Sunday evening, including 145 people on a truck carrying mourners to a funeral, sources told the Sudan War Observatory — taking the reported toll from the weekend's drone wave past 200 when combined with Monday's market strike in Abyei, the BBC reported on Tuesday. The West Kordofan figure is nearly double the toll reported for the same town on Monday, and the BBC's account differs from that earlier reporting in its details as well as its numbers. Both accounts are set out below, unreconciled: the strikes are attributed by the observatory and by local officials to Sudan's army, which has not responded to the allegations about these strikes, and no toll here has been independently verified.
What do the BBC's sources say happened in West Kordofan?
A truck carrying around 200 mourners, travelling from an area north of Abyei, was hit as it arrived in the town of Al-Dabab in West Kordofan on Sunday evening, according to the Sudan War Observatory, a monitoring group tracking the war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Sources told the group that 145 people were killed in the truck strike and that a tent where mourners at the funeral had gathered was also hit, killing five others; a further 150 people were injured. Army drones also bombed a market in the town of Al-Mujlad, in the same state, the same evening, the observatory said — the exact number of deaths and injuries there was not yet known. The observatory assessed that the strikes were likely launched from the army-held city of Kadugli in South Kordofan state. Sudan's army has not responded to the allegation that it carried out these strikes, the BBC reported, but has said it did not attack civilians, even where it believed RSF fighters were among them.
How does this compare with what was reported on Monday?
It conflicts, in both toll and detail. On Monday, AFP reporting published by France 24 and Al Jazeera put the Sunday-evening strike at Al-Dibab — the same town under a different transliteration — at 80 people killed: a resident witness said a drone struck a transport hub where villagers gathered after market day to find rides home, and struck again about 10 minutes later; he said he helped bury 50 bodies, and a medical source said 30 of 47 wounded people taken to Al-Mujlad later died. That reporting also described a separate strike on Al-Mujlad injuring four people. The BBC's account, sourced to the Sudan War Observatory, describes instead a mourners' truck and a funeral tent at Al-Dabab, a toll of 150 across the state's Sunday strikes, and a market bombing at Al-Mujlad with an unknown toll. The two accounts may describe the same Sunday-evening attacks through different witnesses, separate strikes the same evening, or a mixture of both; communications blackouts in the region have hampered verification throughout this wave. This site is publishing the BBC's figures as the observatory's account, alongside Monday's, without reconciling them.
What is now established about Monday's Abyei strike?
More than was known this morning, including visual verification. Drones hit Amiet market in Abyei, the disputed border area between Sudan and South Sudan, at around 11:30 local time on Monday, killing 73 people, the region's information minister, Yohana Akol Ngor, told Radio Tamazuj — the same toll he gave Reuters, which reported that he accused Sudan's army of the attack and provided no evidence for the claim. A military source told the BBC that the army had carried out the Abyei attack, saying the market was a fuel supply site for the RSF; the source was not named, and that admission has not been corroborated. BBC Verify, however, has studied satellite images showing extensive burnt buildings in the north-east corner of the market — also known as Al-Na'am Market — an area older images show is usually full of trucks, and verified footage showing a large plume of smoke, at least one petrol tanker and two massive, separate fires. Médecins Sans Frontières said it was treating more than 20 wounded people at Ameth Bek Hospital in Abyei town, including several critical cases and patients with burns. South Sudan, which jointly administers Abyei, has summoned Sudan's ambassador to lodge a formal protest. The BBC also reported that a drone strike near Khartoum's airport on Monday killed four people, including three children, according to a medical source cited by AFP, and that a military source said air defences had downed several other RSF drones launched toward the airport.
Why does it matter?
Because the drone war is producing mass-casualty strikes on civilian gatherings almost daily, in a country the UN describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. "We are alarmed by the continued deadly drone strikes across the country that are killing civilians, including children, and that are disrupting essential services," UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Monday. The war between the army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has forced more than 14 million people from their homes, the BBC reported, and 20 million people face acute hunger, with a rising risk of famine in parts of Darfur and Greater Kordofan. Both sides have been supplied with drones by foreign countries despite a partial arms embargo, and drones have increasingly become the weapon of choice, the BBC reported.
This article is drawn from reporting opened and read for this article: BBC News' October 20, 2026 report (the Sudan War Observatory's West Kordofan account and toll, the Kadugli assessment, the military source's Abyei admission, the BBC Verify satellite and footage findings, and the Dujarric statements), Reuters' October 20, 2026 report (the Abyei minister's 73 toll and his evidence-free accusation against the army), and the October 19, 2026 Al Jazeera and AFP reporting this site published on Monday (the 80 toll and transport-hub account for Al-Dibab). The West Kordofan toll and the army's responsibility for these strikes are contested claims resting on the observatory's unnamed sources and local officials; the BBC's and Monday's accounts conflict and are published unreconciled, and the army had not responded to the West Kordofan allegations in the reporting opened.
