Sudan drone strike kills around 150 in Abyei market

Drone strike kills over 150 in Abyei market

The full report

A drone strike hit a market in the Abyei border region disputed by Sudan and South Sudan, killing dozens. The drone caused a large fire when it hit a fuel depot. South Sudanese officials blamed Sudan's military for the attack.

According to local authorities, the attack hit the busy Amiet Market at around midday on Monday. The death toll had more than doubled, reaching at least 153 compared to a stated figure of 73 the previous day, said Yohana Akol Ngor, the caretaker information minister in Abyei.

South Sudan's Foreign Ministry also blamed the Sudanese army and said the drone struck multiple locations around the busy market. One of these, judging by witness accounts, was a fuel depot — and this led to a large fire that proved difficult to bring under control overnight and was still ablaze on Tuesday.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, said that its staff was treating some 20 wounded people at the nearby Ameth Bek hospital. Patients with burns were also admitted, said Dr. Christian Lindauer, MSF's medical activities manager at the hospital.

The oil-rich Abyei region's status was not resolved by the 2005 peace agreement that broadly ended decades of civil war in Sudan. It was also not settled in 2011 when South Sudan became an independent country.

South Sudan said it had summoned Sudan's ambassador to protest and urged Sudan to "refrain from any actions that endanger civilian lives and property."

The special UN mission in Abyei warned in May that the RSF's presence in the resource-rich region had put residents in additional danger, and risked intensifying the older territorial dispute between Sudan and the world's newest sovereign state, South Sudan.