Civilian deaths reported after attacks in West Kordofan and Khartoum

People at a crowded market in western Sudan and children near Khartoum’s airport were reported killed in attacks on October 18–19, 2026, according to Radio Dabanga’s West Kordofan report and its separate account from the capital. The reports describe civilian losses in both places, but leave the final toll and important details of the Khartoum deaths unresolved.

Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, have been fighting since April 2023, following a dispute over incorporating the RSF into the armed forces. DW’s background report describes the origins of that conflict.

Dabanga’s West Kordofan account was published on Monday, October 19, and described an attack the previous day—Sunday, October 18—in Al-Dabab. Relatives interviewed by the broadcaster said the military’s air force struck the town’s market while it was crowded with civilians.

The relatives gave preliminary estimates of more than 100 deaths and 120 injuries. They said some injured people were taken to hospitals in serious condition. Both their casualty estimate and their attribution of the attack to the military remain independently unverified. Dabanga’s report contains other casualty accounts, but does not establish that those accounts cover separate groups of victims. Adding estimates together could count the same people more than once.

The Khartoum report, also published on October 19, describes attacks that Monday morning and later in the day. Dabanga attributed the attacking drones to the RSF.

Citing unnamed sources, the broadcaster reported that falling drones killed three children, including two siblings, and a man at two locations east of the airport and in Imtidad Nasser. Separately, military sources told Dabanga that the armed forces had shot down two drones. These remain attributed accounts rather than independently established findings. The report does not establish that the two drones military sources said were intercepted were those involved in the deaths.

That distinction matters: an allegation about who launched a drone does not settle the circumstances in which it came down or exactly how people were killed. The available account leaves the precise lethal mechanism unresolved.

Travel was also reportedly affected. An official United Nations briefing headed October 19, 2026 says some flights were cancelled following attacks in Khartoum. Conflicting dates on that page leave the timing of its account uncertain.

The flight-cancellation statement identifies neither the affected flights nor the duration of disruption. It therefore provides no basis for describing the airport as closed or saying how long any interruption lasted.

Source note: The UN briefing’s heading and displayed dateline say October 19, 2026, while its publication metadata gives May 20, 2025. That discrepancy remains unresolved.