Adel Abdelrheem
06 June 2026•Update: 06 June 2026
A drone strike on a market in Sudan’s North Kordofan State killed at least 11 civilians and injured dozens more on Saturday, according to a Sudanese rights group.
The Emergency Lawyers group said a drone struck the market in the Abu Zaeima area of Hamrat Al Sheikh locality on Saturday morning.
The attack killed 11 civilians and wounded dozens of others, according to a preliminary toll.
The group said the strike came less than 24 hours after similar drone attacks targeted villages and a civilian vehicle in the same area.
Condemning the attack, it said the repeated targeting of civilians, villages and civilian means of transport reflected a blatant disregard for human life and the basic principles of international humanitarian law.
The group said the continued loss of civilian life should not be treated as routine and called for an end to such attacks, as well as accountability for those responsible.
It did not identify the party behind the strike.
However, the area has witnessed intense fighting in recent weeks as the Sudanese army seeks to retake territory from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Earlier Saturday, the group reported that four people were killed and six others injured in drone attacks on two villages in North Kordofan on Friday.
The United Nations warned in May of a rise in drone attacks across the Kordofan region, saying such strikes killed at least 880 civilians between January and April 2026.
North, South and West Kordofan have witnessed heavy fighting between the Sudanese army and the RSF since October 2025.
Sudan has been engulfed in conflict since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the army and the RSF over plans to integrate the paramilitary force into the military. The war has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing nearly 13 million others.
*Writing by Sahin Demir in Istanbul
