• West Darfur: the Minister of Health and Social Welfare of the Darfur Regional Government, Babaker Hamdin, announced that 11 people were killed and 5 others injured in an attack that targeted a camp for displaced people in the Hajar Sanakit area in Sirba locality on Saturday, October 17, and said that most of the victims were women and children and that they had been displaced from the villages of Narouma, Karmelia and Qaramba near the border with Chad, and he called for classifying the Rapid Support Forces as a terrorist organisation and holding those responsible to account (Source: Statement of the Minister of Health of the Darfur Regional Government carried by Anadolu Agency) • East Sudan: air defences intercepted drones that targeted Gedaref, Khashm el-Girba and the Upper Atbara Dam, with no injuries, according to what field reports carried about the attacks on military installations in eastern Sudan (Source: Radio Dabanga) • West Kordofan: the Kordofan Observatory said that a strike by an army drone targeted a civilian truck that was carrying patients and travellers going shopping, leading to the killing of 4 people and the injury of others (Source: Kordofan Observatory via Radio Dabanga) • Khartoum: Khartoum locality inaugurated the start of the 2026–2027 school year, and the Wali of Khartoum rang the bell marking the start of the new year, while the Wali and the army explained the circumstances of the explosions and the fire at an ammunition depot in the vicinity of the Al-Kadro area (Source: SUNA via the headlines of Sudanese newspapers issued this morning) • Higher education: the Prime Minister chaired an expanded meeting on higher education, and the Minister of Higher Education was reassured about the safety of the Bahri University family and the stability of the situation following the ammunition depot incident (Source: SUNA) • Sovereignty Council: Sovereignty Council member Dr. Nawara met the head of the Sudanese Red Crescent Society to discuss the humanitarian situation (Source: SUNA) • Diplomatic and human rights affairs: Sudan called on the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to visit the country at the earliest opportunity to see in the field the violations of the Rapid Support Forces and assess the conditions of the displaced and refugees, reviewing the peace initiatives of the President of the Sovereignty Council and the Prime Minister and the National Human Rights Plan 2026–2030 (Source: Address of Sudan's delegation before the African Commission on Human Rights) • Economy and agriculture: the Minister of Finance, Dr. Gabriel Ibrahim, stressed the importance of investing agricultural resources and enhancing investment opportunities in Sudan, and highlighted food security challenges during the meeting of Arab finance ministers with the World Bank, while the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development and the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation held the Agricultural Investment Forum for the value chains of priority commodities in Sudan, with a focus on gum arabic and groundnuts (Source: SUNA and FANA Agency) • Displacement and return: the International Organization for Migration recorded in its Update No. 10 dated October 18 a total of 8,585,611 internally displaced people in all 18 states and 5,273,334 returnees in nine states, an increase of 2% in returnees compared with the previous month, and 56% of the displaced and 50% of the returnees are children under 18 years of age (Source: International Organization for Migration – DTM via ReliefWeb) • Gezira: the Security Cell in the city of Wad Madani announced the arrest of a number of drug promoters and users in a wide campaign that covered vital sites in the city, and said that the campaigns will continue with the participation of all regular forces (Source: Security Cell in Wad Madani) • South Sudan: the International Monetary Fund expected in its World Economic Outlook report for October that South Sudan will record the fastest growth in sub-Saharan Africa in 2026 at 10.5% after a contraction of 7.7% in 2025, with inflation expected to decline from 233.6% to 33.3% (Source: International Monetary Fund via Access Radio Yei) • South Sudan – investment: the Acting Minister of Finance and Planning, Athian Diing Athian, returned to Juba on Sunday after a week of financial diplomacy in Bangkok, seeking Saudi investments and additional support from the World Bank, and met, on the sidelines of the meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the chief executive officer of the Saudi Fund for Development (Source: Access Radio Yei and the Catholic Radio Network)
— Editorial Team