A Sudanese army drone strike on a market on the Sudan–Chad border has killed 13 people, including Chadian citizens, deepening a standoff between the two neighbors over a series of cross-border attacks.
According to Darfur24, on August 27, the drone bombed the Adikonq market, which sits in an area of active commercial activity, and "several bodies have yet to be identified after being badly burned in the fire that followed the strike, while searches for missing people continue".
The strikes came days after N'Djamena accused Sudan of targeting a military convoy more than 100 km inside its territory. Chad's army said aircraft and drones belonging to the Sudanese Armed Forces pursued and bombed the convoy in Ennedi-Est Province on August 20. In response, Chad placed its forces on maximum alert, deploying about 100 armored vehicles and signal-jamming trucks near the border town of Tine.
The Sudanese foreign ministry said its army respects Chad's territorial integrity but has "constitutional rights to protect Sudan's security," and pointed to alleged drone attacks launched from Ethiopia into Sudan. In May 2025, Sudan’s Army Chief of Staff Lt Gen Yasser al-Atta warned that Chad's airports were legitimate targets for strikes.
On August 27, the African Union’s Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf called on all parties to "take all necessary measures to prevent the conflict in Sudan from extending beyond the country's borders".
The escalation comes as Sudan's civil war, which began in mid-April 2023, has displaced millions and pushed nearly one million Sudanese refugees into Chad. Along a porous 1,300-km border, both armies now rely heavily on drones to strike areas under enemy control, raising fears that Sudan's war could spill further across its borders.
