Sudanese army drone strikes kill 16 in West Kordofan, monitor says

October 10, 2026 (AL-NUHUD) – Sudanese army drone strikes killed at least 16 civilians, including women and children, in West Kordofan state over the past 48 hours, a local human rights monitor said on Saturday.

The Kordofan Observatory said four members of the same family, two men and two children, were killed on Friday when a drone struck the Abu Ba’a residential district in the town of Gbeish.

The group said preliminary reports indicated no military presence in the area. A second strike hit a civilian car near the town’s hospital without causing casualties, it said.

A spokesperson for the Sudanese armed forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gbeish, a populated commercial hub, had largely avoided fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and currently shelters thousands of people displaced by violence across the wider Kordofan and Darfur regions.

Further east, consecutive drone attacks have hit the town of Al-Nuhud over the past week, the monitor said.

On Thursday, a strike hit a municipal administrative building being used as a temporary shelter for displaced families in Al-Nuhud, killing 12 people and wounding eight others, mostly women and children.

Sudan Tribune could not independently verify the casualty figures or the strikes’ origin.

The observatory condemned strikes on residential zones and shelter sites, urging both sides in Sudan’s conflict to comply with international humanitarian law and safeguard civilians.

The war between the army and the RSF erupted in April 2023, creating the world’s largest displacement crisis and triggering widespread allegations of war crimes, including indiscriminate shelling and aerial bombardments in urban areas.