STATEMENT OF CONDEMNATION On the Massacre at Tangong Market, Dumaya, Nyala 102 Killed and 113 Injured, According to the Preliminary Toll

STATEMENT No.
SE/STM/2026/005 ش/ب/2026/005 DATE
28 October 2026 CLASSIFICATION
For Immediate Release
STATEMENT OF CONDEMNATION
On the Massacre at Tangong Market, Dumaya, Nyala
102 Killed and 113 Injured, According to the Preliminary Toll

The Shahid Evidence Platform for Digital Evidence and Human Rights Documentation condemns in the strongest terms the drone strike that hit the Tangong night market (Tangong station market) in the Dumaya neighbourhood of western Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State, at around 8 p.m. on Monday, 26 October 2026, at a time when the market was crowded with civilian vendors, workers and diners.
In a statement issued on 27 October, Ahmed Taqad Lisan, the official spokesperson of the Sudan Founding Alliance (Tasis), announced that, according to a preliminary toll, the attack killed 102 civilians and injured 113 others. He held the Sudanese Armed Forces responsible and called for an independent and impartial international investigation. The health minister of the Tasis government confirmed the same toll.
This information is consistent with reports from other sources. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that Nyala Teaching Hospital, which it supports, received 36 bodies and “over 150 wounded patients”; it attributed the strike to a Sudanese Armed Forces drone and reported a second strike on a residential neighbourhood. The Sudan Liberation Movement Transitional Council reported more than 100 civilians killed, and the Darfur Victims Organization said eyewitnesses confirmed that the drone belonged to the army. The Platform has not yet been able to independently verify the final toll or the identities of the victims.
The Sudanese Armed Forces have issued no official statement on the market, while military sources said the strikes targeted Rapid Support Forces positions in Nyala. The Platform stresses that the presence of armed personnel near a civilian market, if established, does not remove the protection owed to civilians, nor does it relieve the attacker of its strict obligations of proportionality and of taking all feasible precautions. Striking a crowded market at night with such a toll constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and may amount to a war crime.
This massacre comes only ten days after the bombing of the livestock market in the same city on 16 October, amid a dangerous escalation in drone attacks: the UN Human Rights Office recorded more than 306 deaths in drone attacks in the first three weeks of October alone.
The Shahid Evidence Platform calls on the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan to urgently investigate this massacre and identify those responsible; calls on the UN Security Council to take effective measures to protect civilians, including extending the arms embargo to the whole of Sudan so as to halt the supply of drones to the parties to the conflict; calls on the leadership of the Sudanese Armed Forces to respond publicly to these allegations; and calls on all parties to keep military operations away from markets and residential areas, to protect hospitals and medical staff, and to allow humanitarian organisations to deliver urgent medical supplies to Nyala.
“Why are markets being targeted?” — MSF’s question must be answered by those responsible before a court of justice. Markets and homes are not military targets.
The Shahid Evidence Platform affirms that it will continue to collect and preserve digital evidence and testimonies relating to this incident in accordance with professional human rights documentation standards, including the Berkeley Protocol, with a view to submitting them to the competent international investigation and accountability mechanisms.
Shahid Evidence Platform
for Digital Evidence and Human Rights Documentation
— ENDS —