Sudan Kordofan Drone Strikes — A drone strike tore through the main market of Abu Zaeima on Saturday, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens in the paramilitary-controlled town in North Kordofan state, Sudan. The attack struck one of the most densely populated public spaces in the area, and the death toll is expected to rise as the wounded receive treatment.
The strike was documented by Emergency Lawyers, a rights group that has tracked abuses since fighting first erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023. The organisation noted the Abu Zaeima attack came less than 24 hours after similar drone strikes hit nearby villages and a civilian vehicle — a pattern of aerial bombardment that has become grimly routine across the contested region.
On the same day, two witnesses reported a separate drone strike on a fuel station in el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, wounding at least four civilians who were subsequently transported to a local hospital. El-Obeid has been partially encircled by RSF forces for months, leaving its population increasingly isolated and vulnerable.
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Neither the Sudanese army nor the RSF claimed responsibility for either Saturday strike. The silence from both sides is consistent with a broader pattern in which accountability for civilian casualties has remained elusive throughout the conflict.
The scale of the violence in recent days is staggering. Nearly 70 people have been killed in two separate drone strikes across West and North Kordofan states over the past week alone, according to Emergency Lawyers and a local leader. That toll sits against an even grimmer national backdrop: the United Nations reported in May that at least 880 civilians were killed in drone strikes across Sudan between January and April of this year.
Kordofan has emerged as one of the war’s most fiercely contested theatres. The region holds strategic significance that goes beyond its oil reserves and fertile agricultural land — it serves as a critical corridor linking RSF strongholds in Darfur to army-controlled territory in the country’s east. Control of Kordofan could shape the war’s ultimate outcome, and both sides have fought bitterly for it.
The intensity of fighting in Kordofan and neighbouring Blue Nile State, near the Ethiopian border, has surged since the RSF captured el-Fasher — the military’s last major stronghold in western Darfur — in October of last year. That fall triggered a mass exodus, with more than 300,000 people fleeing front-line areas in el-Fasher, parts of Kordofan, and Blue Nile State, according to UN figures.
The broader human cost of Sudan’s civil war, now entering its fourth year, is almost incomprehensible in scale. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since April 2023. Nearly 13 million people have been displaced — a figure the UN describes as part of the world’s largest displacement crisis. Hunger has spread in tandem with the fighting, and the UN has characterised Sudan’s combined displacement and food security emergency as the most severe on the planet.
Sudan Kordofan Drone Strikes: The Broader African Context
The war began in April 2023 when long-simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and the RSF — a powerful paramilitary force that grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias — erupted into open combat in the capital, Khartoum, before spreading across the country. What began as a power struggle between two military factions has since engulfed civilian populations from Darfur to the Nile Valley, with both sides accused of serious violations of international humanitarian law.
Emergency Lawyers, which has operated continuously since the conflict began, continues to document strikes, detentions, and other abuses in areas where independent journalists have limited or no access. Their records have become among the most comprehensive available from inside Sudan’s most affected regions.
With no ceasefire in sight and international diplomatic efforts stalled, communities across North Kordofan face the prospect of continued bombardment. For the residents of Abu Zaeima, Saturday’s market strike was not an aberration — it was the latest chapter in a war that shows no sign of ending.
