The death toll from a drone attack on Amiet Market in the disputed Abyei region has risen to at least 153, with fires continuing to burn through the trading centre a day after the bombardment. What began as a reported strike on fuel supplies has left charred buildings, destroyed merchandise and a growing number of dead in one of the busiest commercial meeting points between Sudan and South Sudan.

Yohana Akol Ngor, Abyei's caretaker information minister, confirmed the revised casualty figure on Tuesday, October 20. The initial reports of the Amiet Market attack had placed the death toll at 73, with 19 others injured. Recovery teams were struggling to retrieve bodies from the ruins, with intense fires leaving some victims burned beyond recognition. Ngor warned that the toll could rise further.

The attack occurred around 11 a.m. on Monday, October 19, when drones struck Amiet Market, north of Abyei town. The bombardment ignited fuel supplies stored near the market, turning the commercial area into a major fire site.

South Sudanese authorities blamed the Sudanese Armed Forces, prompting Juba to summon Sudan's ambassador, Essam Mohamed Karrar, in protest. The foreign ministry condemned the deaths and destruction, calling on Khartoum to avoid military actions that endanger civilians and to resolve disputes concerning Abyei through diplomatic channels.

A senior Sudanese military officer subsequently acknowledged that the army had attacked fuel tankers allegedly destined for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary organisation fighting Sudan's military since April 2023. Speaking anonymously, the officer claimed the intended targets were RSF personnel and fuel smugglers rather than civilians. His account has not been independently substantiated, and the Sudanese military has not publicly established that those killed were combatants.

The humanitarian response has been difficult. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), working alongside South Sudanese health personnel at Ameth Bek Hospital, reported receiving more than 20 injured patients, including people with severe burns and others in critical condition. The number requiring treatment may be considerably higher as recovery operations continue.

The United Nations condemned the attacks in Abyei, reporting an initial verified minimum of 28 civilian deaths across Amiet Market and Todach, with many more people injured or unaccounted for. The UN's lower initial figure reflects its separate verification process and does not independently confirm the local administration's latest count of 153.

The attack has exposed another vulnerability in Abyei's unsettled political arrangement. Sudan and South Sudan have never resolved the territory's final status, despite the 2005 peace agreement and South Sudan's subsequent independence in 2011. Disagreements over voter eligibility prevented a referendum intended to decide whether Abyei would belong to Sudan or South Sudan.

Amiet Market serves both the Ngok Dinka community and Misseriya pastoralists, whose seasonal movement across the territory has long depended on access to trade, water and grazing land. Earlier this year, community representatives signed a declaration with UN peacekeepers seeking to restrict the spread of weapons and protect local coexistence.

That fragile arrangement is now confronting the consequences of Sudan's wider war. The alleged military use of fuel supplies moving through Abyei raises serious questions about the exposure of civilian trading centres to attack. Even if fuel tankers were supplying an armed group, their presence would not remove the obligation to distinguish civilians from military objectives and avoid disproportionate civilian harm.

For families whose livelihoods depended on Amiet, the bombardment has destroyed far more than a marketplace. A trading centre that helped sustain relations across an unresolved border has become another casualty of a war its communities did not choose.