Five people, including a woman and two children, were killed in an alleged Sudanese army drone strike targeting the home of a senior commander allied with the Sudan Founding Alliance (TASIS) in Nyala, South Darfur, local Sudanese media reported on Tuesday.
The strike hit the residence of Ahmed Abdullah Bishr Abu Tanga, chief of staff of the Sudan Liberation Forces Gathering, in the Al-Nahda neighbourhood northwest of Nyala early Monday morning, according to sources cited by Darfur24.
A senior official from the movement, led by Al-Tahir Hajar, accused the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) of carrying out the attack, which killed Abu Tanga’s wife, two of his children and two personal bodyguards.
Abu Tanga was wounded in the strike and taken to hospital for treatment alongside several other injured people, the official said.
The source insisted that the residence was a family home rather than a military installation, maintaining that there were no visible military activities at the property.
A resident of Al-Nahda told local Sudanese media that people in the neighbourhood heard a drone flying overhead at approximately 1 a.m. before an explosion destroyed the house.
Residents subsequently searched through the rubble, recovering bodies and rescuing survivors, the witness said.
Legal procedures relating to the deaths were reportedly completed on Tuesday, with funeral arrangements scheduled for later that evening.
Abu Tanga serves as chief of staff of the Sudan Liberation Forces Gathering, headed by Al-Tahir Hajar, whose movement is a signatory to the Sudan Founding Alliance’s founding charter.
Hajar represents the movement on the alliance’s presidential council, chaired by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemeti.
The reported attack comes amid an intensifying aerial campaign against Nyala, which serves as the administrative centre of the TASIS-backed government.
On Friday, the Sudanese army announced strikes against RSF command centres and positions in Nyala, claiming to have killed dozens of fighters and destroyed military facilities.
However, TASIS and the RSF accused the military of bombing the city’s crowded livestock market, causing civilian casualties. The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) independently reported deaths and injuries following the market attack.
By Tuesday, the reported death toll from the livestock market strike had risen to 39, with 43 others injured, according to Radio Tamazuj.
The latest reported strike on Abu Tanga’s residence raises further concerns over the safety of residential neighbourhoods as aerial operations intensify across South Darfur.
