World
Drone strike on Nyala market in Darfur kills at least 36, MSF treats more than 150 wounded
Doctors Without Borders attributes Monday evening's strike to the Sudanese Armed Forces; the group Emergency Lawyers puts the death toll above 100, while the RSF claims 188.
By ANN Newsroom · Newsroom
October 27, 2026, 13:30 · Updated 18:42 · 2 min read
In brief
- A drone hit a crowded market in western Nyala around 8 p.m. Monday, and another struck a civilian neighborhood.
- The MSF-supported hospital received 36 bodies and more than 150 wounded, including women and children with severe burns.
- In Khartoum, a drone attack on a transformer station left large parts of the capital without power.
At least 36 people were killed and more than 150 wounded in a drone strike on a crowded market in western Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said. According to the group, the strike, carried out by the Sudanese Armed Forces, happened Monday at around 8 p.m. local time, while a second strike hit a civilian neighborhood.
Nyala Teaching Hospital, which MSF supports, has received 36 bodies, 21 of them in civilian clothing, while the emergency room has treated more than 150 wounded, many with shrapnel wounds and burns, among them women and children. The injured were brought from the market on tuk-tuks and donkey carts. “Markets, homes, and key civilian infrastructure are not targets. All parties to the conflict must protect civilians,” said Dale Koninckx, MSF project coordinator in Nyala.
Differing tolls
The Sudanese rights group Emergency Lawyers reports more than 100 dead and 113 injured, blaming the army and calling for an independent investigation. It said the attack “transformed a civilian marketplace into a scene of mass killing and injury.” A spokesperson for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) claimed 188 civilians were killed and 356 injured. The Sudanese army has not commented.
On Oct. 16, a similar strike on Nyala's Al-Mawashi market killed at least four people. Meanwhile, large parts of Khartoum were left without electricity after a drone attack on the Al-Markhiyat transformer station in Omdurman; a company official, speaking on condition of anonymity, blamed the RSF and said it was the second attack on the station this year.
According to the U.N., drone strikes killed at least 1,120 civilians in the first half of 2026. The war between the army and the RSF, which began in April 2023, has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 14 million.
