More than 100 people were killed when a Sudanese military drone struck a crowded market in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur province, on Monday evening, according to the Sudanese rights group Emergency Lawyers. A further 113 people were injured, many of them women and children, in what the group condemned as a massacre of civilians going about their evening shopping in a city controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The strike is one of the deadliest single attacks on civilians since Sudan's civil war began in April 2023, and it comes amid a sharp escalation of drone warfare in which both sides have repeatedly hit populated areas and essential infrastructure.

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A marketplace turned into a mass-casualty scene

Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese organisation that tracks violence against civilians, said the strike hit the market on Monday evening as traders and shoppers gathered, and blamed the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for the attack. In a statement reported by the Associated Press, the group said the attack had transformed "a civilian marketplace into a scene of mass killing and injury" and called for an independent investigation.

"This massacre transformed a civilian marketplace into a scene of mass killing and injury and is an assault that threatens the lives of residents and compounds their suffering amid the ongoing war," the group said, according to the Associated Press.

The Sudanese military did not immediately respond to the accusation. As with much of the reporting from Darfur, where independent access is severely restricted, the full circumstances of the strike — including the precise target and the identity of every person killed — have not been independently established.

Two casualty counts, one grim picture

The headline death toll of more than 100 comes from Emergency Lawyers and was echoed by the health minister of the RSF-aligned Tasis government. That figure has not been independently verified, and the hospital count tells a partial but still harrowing story of its own.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Nyala Teaching Hospital received 36 bodies and treated more than 150 wounded patients after the attack, according to Times Now. Twenty-one of the dead brought to the hospital were wearing civilian clothing. Medical teams worked through the night treating shrapnel wounds, severe burns and other traumatic injuries, with some patients carried to hospital on tuk-tuks, motorcycles and donkey carts because ambulances could not cope.

MSF's project coordinator in Nyala, Dale Koninckx, described medical workers struggling through the emergency to treat the injured, including women and children. MSF also reported that a second drone strike hit a residential neighbourhood in the city, adding to the casualty load.

The gap between the two counts is not unusual in Sudan's war: bodies are often buried quickly, hospitals record only those who reach them, and rights groups compile deaths from families, burial records and local networks. What both counts agree on is the scale — dozens dead at minimum, and well over a hundred wounded — and the civilian character of the victims.

Nyala: the RSF's Darfur stronghold

Nyala matters because it is no ordinary provincial town. As the capital of South Darfur and one of the largest cities in the region, it has become the RSF's principal stronghold and the seat of its rival Tasis administration. That is precisely why it has become a target: the army has increasingly used long-range drones to strike deep inside RSF-held territory, while the RSF has answered with its own drone attacks on army-held cities and infrastructure.

For the civilians still living in Nyala, that strategic logic offers no protection. Markets are where a city under siege feeds itself — where traders sell what little food arrives, where families buy grain and vegetables, where daily life continues between offensives. Hitting one on a busy evening does not only kill the people present; it frightens traders away, disrupts food supply, and deepens the hunger already gripping Darfur, where famine conditions have been flagged across Darfur and Kordofan.

A second front: the lights go out in Khartoum

The Nyala strike did not happen in isolation. On Tuesday, a separate drone strike hit the Al-Markhiyat power station in Omdurman, knocking out electricity across large parts of the capital, Khartoum. Reports indicated the outage affected roughly 60 percent of the capital's power supply and lasted more than 12 hours, forcing hospitals onto backup generators and disrupting water pumping stations.

Taken together, the two strikes illustrate how the war's drone campaign now moves on two tracks at once: devastating attacks on crowded civilian spaces in the west, and systematic degradation of the power, water and health infrastructure that keeps cities functioning in the east. International humanitarian law prohibits attacks that target civilians or that cause disproportionate civilian harm, and the pattern of strikes on markets and utilities is exactly what has drawn growing calls for independent investigations.

A pattern of market strikes

Nyala is the latest in a grim sequence of market attacks in Sudan's war this month alone. A drone strike on a market in the disputed Abyei region killed at least 153 people earlier in October, in an incident covered separately, and an earlier strike at Al-Dibab killed around 80 people. The United Nations Human Rights Council has already called for an investigation into Sudan's drone strikes and a ceasefire — a call that has so far gone unanswered as the drone war has only intensified.

Each incident follows a similar script: a crowded civilian site, competing claims about what was targeted, a death toll that rises as bodies are recovered, and no accountability. The repetition is itself the story — markets, once the safest assumption of civilian life, have become among the most dangerous places in Sudan.

What happens next

Three questions will determine whether Nyala becomes a turning point or simply another entry in the war's ledger of atrocities. First, will any independent investigation actually happen — and will either side allow investigators access to Nyala? Second, will the strike change the calculations of the external backers arming both sides' drone fleets? And third, will the international attention that follows a triple-digit death toll translate into pressure for a ceasefire, or fade as the next strike displaces it from the headlines?

For now, the immediate task is medical: Nyala Teaching Hospital, already operating under extreme pressure, must treat scores of wounded patients with limited supplies, while families search for the missing and bury the dead. The war between the army and the RSF has killed at least 59,000 people since April 2023, according to conflict monitors cited by the Associated Press, with aid agencies warning the true figure is higher. Some 34 million people are estimated to need humanitarian assistance. In that context, a single evening in a Nyala market is both a catastrophe in its own right and a measure of how far Sudan's war has moved from any restraint.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened in Nyala, Sudan?

A military drone struck a crowded market in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, on Monday evening, October 26, 2026. The rights group Emergency Lawyers reported more than 100 people killed and 113 injured, many of them women and children, and blamed the Sudanese Armed Forces. The death toll has not been independently verified.

What do hospitals in Nyala report?

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Nyala Teaching Hospital received 36 bodies, including 21 people in civilian clothing, and treated more than 150 wounded patients with shrapnel wounds, severe burns and other injuries. MSF also reported a second drone strike on a residential neighbourhood in the city.

Who controls Nyala?

Nyala is controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and serves as the seat of its rival Tasis administration. The city is the RSF's main stronghold in South Darfur, which is why it has become a target of Sudanese army drone strikes.

Is this the same as the Abyei market strike?

No. The Abyei strike earlier in October hit a market in the disputed Abyei region between Sudan and South Sudan and killed at least 153 people. The Nyala strike is a separate, later attack on a market in South Darfur's capital. Both were attributed by local sources to the Sudanese military, and neither toll has been fully independently verified.

How long has Sudan's civil war been going on?

The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces began in April 2023. Conflict monitors estimate at least 59,000 people have been killed, millions have been displaced, and roughly 34 million people need humanitarian assistance, with famine conditions reported in parts of Darfur and Kordofan.

Has anyone called for an investigation?

Yes. Emergency Lawyers called for an independent investigation into the Nyala strike, and the United Nations Human Rights Council has previously called for investigations into Sudan's drone strikes and a ceasefire. No independent investigation of the Nyala attack has yet been announced.