Drone Strike on Ghubaysh Market Kills 28, Wounds 23 as Sudan's Drone Warfare Escalates

A drone strike on the busy market in Ghubaysh, West Kordofan, killed 28 people and wounded 23 on Tuesday, medical sources and witnesses told AFP, marking one of the deadliest recent attacks on civilians in Sudan's three-year war.

The strike hit the town of Ghubaysh, an area controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Medical personnel said the dead and injured were taken to the town hospital. Witnesses described scenes of sudden destruction at the market's center.

Two witnesses told AFP a drone hit a crowded restaurant and attributed the attack to the Sudanese military. Another witness described what appeared to be a two-stage assault: an initial strike on an RSF vehicle that killed three people, followed moments later by a second blast that struck the restaurant.

Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese legal advocacy group, said the strike targeted a key market relied upon by thousands of civilians for food and basic supplies. A spokesperson for the Sudanese military denied responsibility, saying its forces strike only "military objectives," including vehicles and weapons depots. An alliance aligned with the RSF condemned the attack, accusing the military of systematically targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure in violation of international law.

Broadening Battlefield

Drone warfare has become an increasingly prominent and deadly feature of the conflict, with both sides deploying unmanned strikes across an expanding front. The United Nations reports that between January and April at least 880 civilians — more than 80% of all conflict-related civilian deaths in that period — were killed in drone strikes.

Fighting has intensified in southern Kordofan and the southeastern Blue Nile state, following the RSF's capture last October of El-Fasher, the army's last major stronghold in western Darfur. The Kordofan region contains oil, arable land and key RSF allies, and serves as a geographic link between RSF-held Darfur and army-controlled areas to the east.

The RSF controls West Kordofan and has pushed eastward in attempts to regain strategic ground, while the army has countered by breaking sieges on cities in South Kordofan and trying to cut RSF supply lines to Darfur.

Now in its fourth year, the war has killed tens of thousands and forced more than 11 million people from their homes, creating what the UN calls one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Nearly 20 million people — roughly two in five Sudanese — face acute food insecurity, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The IPC has warned that 14 areas across Darfur and South Kordofan are at risk of famine if fighting intensifies and access to food, healthcare and clean water worsens or displacement increases.

Since October, more than 300,000 people have fled frontline areas, including El-Fasher and parts of Kordofan and Blue Nile, the UN said. The UN has warned that without urgent international action the humanitarian situation could deteriorate into an even greater tragedy.

Verification on the ground remains difficult amid active fighting; investigations and independent confirmation of responsibility are ongoing.