Saturday, October 24, 2026

📍 From the Field In Abyei, the commander of the Pakistani battalion in the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Farouk, said that the mission's forces were the first to arrive at the site of the attack on Amit Market and the Todash area on October 19, and that "every shop was burning", while UN News quoted the trader Angelina Musa Diaw, a mother of three children, as saying she had lost everything: "No work, everything is gone, I am here with my children and I need help". The ACAPS network said in its update on October 21, citing the acting Minister of Information in Abyei and the International Organization for Migration, that more than 8,000 people fled to Abyei town and its surroundings, and that many of them sleep under trees near the market and in the town, with an urgent need for shelter, food and non-food items, after the market had been the area's main outlet for food, fuel and medicine.

And in North Kordofan, the state government said in a statement on Friday that drone attacks on Thursday and Friday targeted fuel stations and service facilities in El Rahad and Umm Rawaba, and described them as aimed at terrorising residents and depriving them of basic services, without announcing a toll of victims or the scale of losses, while the headlines of Sudanese newspapers published today reported the targeting of five travel buses in Umm Rawaba and explosions north and east of Nyala and raids on the market and military sites in El Fasher. The OCHA office stated in the minutes of the coordination meeting in Port Sudan and Khartoum on October 20, published on October 23, that humanitarian access in parts of Darfur improved over the past year compared with the same period the previous year, and that weak rainfall this year limited road disruption, with partners' concerns remaining regarding approvals, registrations and administrative obstacles.

The International Organization for Migration recorded in its Displacement and Return Bulletin No. 10 issued on October 18 the presence of 8,585,611 internally displaced persons in all eighteen states, and 5,273,334 returnees in nine states, and that children under eighteen constitute about 56% of the displaced and 50% of the returnees.

1️⃣ United Nations: 306 killed by drone strikes in three weeks and the Security Council condemns the Abyei attack The UN Human Rights Office said drone strikes attributed to the Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces killed at least 306 people in three weeks, and targeted homes, markets, hospitals, displacement sites, power stations and water sources in Kordofan, Darfur, Blue Nile, Khartoum and other states, and High Commissioner Volker Türk said the increasing use of drones, which now accounts for the majority of conflict-related civilian deaths this year, is "deeply concerning and leaves a horrific toll". The office documented the killing of at least 139 people on October 18 when a transport truck in Dibab in West Kordofan was hit by a repeated strike, the killing of at least 25 civilians in Gubeish and El Nuhud in West Kordofan between October 6 and 10, the killing of at least 31 people, most of them women and children, near a displacement site in Abu Shandi in Blue Nile on October 9, the serious injury of two health workers and the putting of Um Darfa Hospital in Blue Nile out of service on October 11, in addition to the killing of more than 80 people in the October 19 attack on Amit Market and Todash in Abyei, where UNISFA treated 27 wounded and is still verifying the toll. The Security Council condemned in a statement on Friday the Abyei attack "in the strongest terms", warning that attacks on civilians may amount to war crimes and calling for a full, transparent and swift investigation, while the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday that "there is no connection of the Sudanese Armed Forces to this unfortunate incident", expressing the government's solidarity with the families of the victims, and the acting Minister of Information in Abyei, Yohana Akol Nguor, described the local toll as 153 killed. (Sources: UN News - Human Rights Office and UNISFA, UNISFA statement via ReliefWeb on October 22, Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement) 💡 Quick reading: The transformation of drones into the weapon most deadly to civilians expands the war to markets and displacement sites themselves, and makes any truce without a publicly announced investigation and accountability mechanism liable to collapse at the first disputed strike.

2️⃣ Prime Minister returns from the COMESA summit and discussion of the return of the COMESA Court of Justice to Khartoum Prime Minister Dr. Kamal Idris returned to the country on Friday evening following his participation in the 25th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in Harare from October 19 to 22, and was received at Khartoum Airport by the Minister of Federal Governance and Rural Development, Mohamed Kartikela Saleh, and the Minister of Higher Education, Ahmed Madawi Musa. Idris held on the sidelines of the summit meetings with the President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the President of Kenya, William Ruto, the President of Zambia, the Deputy Prime Minister of Somalia, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt and a delegation from Uganda, addressing bilateral relations, economic cooperation, stability efforts and reconstruction, and agreed with the Zambian side to work towards a comprehensive memorandum of understanding and an implementation matrix for trade cooperation. Idris discussed with the Secretary-General of COMESA, Chileshe Kapwepwe, the executive and logistical arrangements for returning the permanent headquarters of the COMESA Court of Justice to Khartoum, and handed over the file of border crossing and solar energy projects for follow-up, while the summit approved the report on the state of peace and security and endorsed special recommendations on Sudan to support stability and address its financial arrears in consideration of its current circumstances. (Sources: Sudan News Agency (SUNA) via Akhir Khabar and Nabdh Al-Sudan) 💡 Quick reading: The return of a regional institution to Khartoum, if it happens, will be a practical indicator of the capital regaining its institutional role, but its value depends on implementing the crossings and energy files, not on announcing the intention alone.

3️⃣ Geneva meeting with participation of 22 countries calls for urgent action to stop the escalation and a humanitarian truce The Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General to Sudan, Pekka Haavisto, stressed, during the sixth consultative meeting on coordinating peace initiatives in Sudan held in Geneva on October 21 with the participation of high-level representatives from 22 countries alongside the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union, IGAD and the League of Arab States, the need for Sudan's partners to have a "firm commitment to ending the war, alleviating the suffering of the Sudanese people, and supporting their right to a future of peace, security and dignity in a united Sudan", stressing that the voices of Sudanese must guide the deliberations. The meeting addressed de-escalation, confidence-building, the path of transition to a Sudanese-led political process, the regional dimensions of the conflict and preventing its spread to neighbouring countries, while participants called, according to Sudanese press reports on the meeting, for an urgent humanitarian truce paving the way for a permanent ceasefire and the protection of civilians and vital facilities, rejecting the formation of parallel governments and preserving Sudan's unity and sovereignty, and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, Walid Al-Khuraiji, affirmed that the Kingdom's efforts are based on the Jeddah Declaration for the protection of civilians. The meeting does not include in its deliberations the Sudanese government or the Rapid Support Forces, with consultation with both parties to the conflict before it convenes and briefing them on its results afterwards. (Sources: UN News on October 21, Al-Mashhad Al-Sudani on October 23) 💡 Quick reading: Geneva's value lies in uniting the mediators around a united Sudan and rejecting parallel governments, but the absence of the two parties to the war from the table makes the meeting's real test what reaches them after its conclusion, not what those present agreed on.

— Editorial Team