Drones from foreign allies fuel rise in Sudan’s civilian casualties, say Experts

Drone warfare has become the deadliest threat to civilians in Sudan’s conflict, and both the military and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are being supplied by a number of countries in the West Asia and beyond, experts say.

“Armed drones have now become by far and away the leading cause of civilian deaths,” or over 80 per cent of conflict-related deaths, United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said this week, calling for measures to prevent their transfer to Sudan.

Drones killed at least 880 civilians between January and April. The war in Sudan began in April 2023 and has killed at least 59,000 people, displaced some 13 million and pushed parts of the country into famine.

In recent weeks, the RSF has carried out drone attacks on Khartoum International Airport and other areas near the capital, which the army seized control of last year.

“On the battlefield, drones have emerged as a force multiplier, enabling ground offensives and weakening enemy defences,” said Jalale Getachew Birru, East Africa senior analyst at the US-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project. Both the army and RSF use drones to secure contested territory, disrupt mobilisation efforts and spread insecurity in areas controlled by rivals, he said.

At least 2,670 people, including combatants and civilians, were killed in 2025, marking a 600 per cent increase in drone-related deaths and an 81 per cent increase in drone attacks compared to the previous year, ACLED found.

Drone strikes by the warring parties have targeted civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, dams, schools, markets and displacement camps.

Most of the civilian deaths in drone attacks have occurred in the Kordofan region in the central Sudan, according to Turk.

On May 8, drone strikes in South Kordofan and near the city of el-Obeid in North Kordofan reportedly killed 26 civilians. More than 70 people were killed in drone attacks on densely populated areas in Kordofan earlier this year, according to the Sudan Doctors Network. On Tuesday, a Sudanese rights group, the Emergency Lawyers, said nine drone attacks on civilian vehicles had killed at least 36 people over the past 10 days across seven provinces.

The group blamed both the army and RSF and said some drones use visual monitoring technology capable of distinguishing targets, raising concerns that the attacks may not have been indiscriminate. The paramilitary RFS began only last year to use drones widely, said Gabriella Tejeda, research associate at The Soufan Centre. The army and RSF are competing to obtain new drone models, particularly from China, but the RSF is modifying drones and “increasingly competing to acquire newer, more sophisticated models, with the UAE likely supplying them,” Tejeda said.