Khartoum Denies Army Role in ‘Abyei Massacre’
Sudan’s government denied army involvement in a drone strike that local reports said killed more than 150 people at a market in the disputed Abyei region. The army said it had recaptured military positions in Blue Nile state near the Ethiopian border and shot down a drone that crossed from Ethiopia, while South Sudan summoned Sudan’s ambassador in Juba to protest the Abyei attack. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf condemned the Abyei drone attacks.
Why it matters: The denial and cross-border drone activity matter for regional security because they show the Sudan war’s potential to draw in South Sudan and Ethiopia.