On Wednesday, 21 October 2026, Abyei’s caretaker information minister, Yohana Akol Ngor, told Radio Tamazuj that the death toll from Monday’s drone strikes on Amiet market had risen to 153. Those are the bodies buried in two mass graves. People remain missing. He rejected figures of 220. On Monday, officials had spoken of at least 73. Those are steps, not three wars.

Ngor blames the Sudanese army. South Sudan’s foreign ministry summoned Sudan’s ambassador. A Sudanese officer, unnamed, told AP, as reported by Al Jazeera, that the target was fuel tankers for the Rapid Support Forces, not civilians, and that the dead were RSF fighters and smugglers. That is one accusation against another. It is not a closed independent attribution.

UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric condemned drone attacks near Amiet and Todach. He spoke of dozens of civilians, including women and children, killed and injured. He did not name the perpetrator. Children are not named here. UNISFA is still verifying. The UN: the toll may rise.

MSF, with the health ministry, is treating more than 20 wounded at Ameth Bek Hospital, some critical, some with burns, Dr Christian Lindauer said on Monday. Ngor, on Wednesday: 30 people in hospital, some in a serious condition. Those are two injured counts, from different days.

Amiet market, about 10 kilometres north of Abyei town, is a shared trading hub for Ngok Dinka and Misseriya, and for people displaced by Sudan’s war. Abyei is claimed by Sudan and South Sudan; the 2005 agreement’s referendum has not been held. Sudan’s war between the army and the RSF began in April 2023. That is the frame, not a recap of the whole front.

South Sudan says it has not taken sides. Diplomats, cited by Al Jazeera, say Abyei has become a fuel route for the RSF. Neither the RSF nor the Sudanese army immediately issued a public statement in their own name in AJ’s report. Silence is not a verdict.

Image: Abyei from above, 18 November 2009, Sudan Envoy, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The area in 2009, not Monday’s market.

Sources consulted: Drone attack in disputed Sudan-South Sudan border region kills at least 153 — Al Jazeera; Death toll from drone strikes on Abyei market rises to 153 — Radio Tamazuj; MSF treating over 20 wounded after reported drone strikes in Abyei — Eye Radio.