Abyei drone strikes: UN reports at least 80 dead, local official says 153

Drone strikes on 19 October at Amiet Market and Todach in Abyei killed at least 80 people, the UN peacekeeping mission said. Abyei’s caretaker information minister reported a higher figure of 153 dead at the market. The differing counts have not been reconciled, and responsibility for the attacks is disputed.

UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on 21 October that the mission, UNISFA, was still verifying casualties and that people remained missing. UN personnel had treated 27 injured people; that is not a total for everyone wounded. Peacekeepers had extinguished major fires at both sites, were evacuating casualties and had doubled patrols in the affected areas, he said.

Yohana Akol Ngor, Abyei’s caretaker information minister, told Radio Tamazuj that 153 bodies had been buried after the market attack, up from an earlier figure of 73. The UN’s minimum covers the strikes at both Amiet and Todach, so its figure cannot be added to Ngor’s market toll.

An interview with Ngor published by Eye Radio a day earlier described about 153 bodies in one grave and 73 in another, leading to reports of more than 220 deaths. Ngor subsequently rejected that higher total. Reuters verified footage showing burnt-out vehicles and buildings at the market, but the images do not settle the casualty count.

Abyei officials and South Sudan’s foreign ministry have blamed Sudan’s military; South Sudan summoned Sudan’s ambassador in protest. An anonymous senior Sudanese officer told the Associated Press that the army had struck fuel tankers he said were bound for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). He claimed those killed were RSF members or people involved in fuel smuggling. The UN secretary-general, however, said civilians, including women and children, had been killed in the Abyei attacks. Sudan’s foreign ministry denied on 22 October that its forces were involved in the market strike. Dujarric said the UN could not yet formally determine who was responsible.

Abyei’s status has remained unresolved since South Sudan gained independence in 2011. Reuters reported that diplomats and analysts described Amiet Market as part of a fuel supply route serving the RSF, which has fought Sudan’s army since 2023. A local chamber of commerce representative said RSF members sometimes obtained fuel there but were not present when the strike occurred. That trade does not establish who launched the strike, what was targeted or the identities of those killed.