A drone struck the main market in Abu Zaeima, a town in Sudan’s North Kordofan state, killing 11 civilians and injuring dozens, according to the rights group Emergency Lawyers.
The attack occurred on June 6, 2026, as aerial operations were adding to the civilian toll from the war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. Abu Zaeima was under paramilitary control, but Emergency Lawyers did not identify the party responsible for the market strike. Neither the army nor the RSF had commented, according to the report.
The rights group, which has recorded abuses since the conflict began in April 2023, cautioned that the casualty count could increase. It also said nearby villages and civilian vehicles had been hit in similar drone attacks less than a day before the market was struck.
Violence across Kordofan
A separate drone later hit a fuel station in El-Obeid, the North Kordofan capital, two witnesses told AFP. A medical source at a hospital in the city said four wounded civilians were received there. RSF forces had partially encircled El-Obeid for months.
The attacks followed a week of substantial loss of life elsewhere in the wider Kordofan region. Emergency Lawyers and a local leader reported that nearly 70 people were killed in two distinct drone strikes in West Kordofan and North Kordofan.
United Nations figures cited in the report indicate that drone warfare had become an increasingly consequential part of the conflict. The UN said at least 880 civilians were killed in drone strikes across Sudan between January and April.
Fighting had intensified in Kordofan and in Blue Nile state, near the Ethiopian border, after the RSF captured El-Fasher in October. El-Fasher had been the military’s last major stronghold in western Darfur. Since that capture, more than 300,000 people had fled front-line areas, including the city and parts of Kordofan and Blue Nile, according to the UN.
Kordofan remained contested between the army and the RSF. Its position connects RSF-held areas in neighboring Darfur with eastern Sudan, which was controlled by the army. The region also contains oil resources and arable land, giving it strategic importance within the wider conflict.
By the time of the Abu Zaeima attack, the war had entered its fourth year. Tens of thousands of people had been killed and more than 11 million driven from their homes. The UN characterized the resulting emergency as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises. The reported market strike placed another civilian site within that expanding pattern of aerial violence, while responsibility remained unassigned.
