More than 1,000 civilians were killed by drone strikes in Sudan during the first five months of 2026 alone, according to a senior United Nations official who warned Monday that unmanned aerial vehicles have transformed the conflict into an escalating humanitarian catastrophe. The death toll represents a devastating acceleration of violence against non-combatants in a war that has already claimed at least 59,000 lives.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that his office has documented a "sharp increase" in drone attacks, alongside widespread rape and sexual violence. "In Sudan, the horrific conflict has expanded and escalated, marked by a sharp increase in the use of drone warfare," Türk said, noting that his office registered the killing of over 1,000 civilians by drone strikes between January and May this year.
A War in Its Fourth Year
The conflict erupted on April 15, 2023, when a power struggle between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in Sudan. Now in its fourth year, the war has killed at least 59,000 people over the course of three years, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, known as ACLED. The U.S.-based war-tracking group emphasized that the actual toll was almost certainly higher, given reporting difficulties.
ACLED documented at least 2,670 deaths, including combatants and civilians, in 2025 alone—marking a 600% increase in drone-related deaths and an 81% increase in drone attacks compared to 2024. The latest drone strike by the paramilitary group last week killed at least 15 people after hitting a cemetery and a gas station in the central city of el-Obeid, health officials said at the time.
Targeting Civilians and Infrastructure
Both warring parties have increasingly launched explosive-laden drones that, in multiple cases, targeted civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, dams, schools, markets and displacement camps. U.K. Minister for Africa and International Development Jenny Chapman condemned the attacks in a statement: "Sudan's warring parties have increased their brutality from the skies, using drones supplied by their backers to target civilians and aid workers. This is deplorable and must stop."
Chapman added that the latest update "underscores that this conflict is evolving" and that it was vital for organizations to "document abuses and preserve evidence - essential steps to breaking the cycle of impunity." Drone strikes have become the deadliest threat to civilians in a conflict overshadowed first by wars in Gaza and then in Iran.
A Humanitarian Crisis Without Parallel
The conflict has created the world's largest humanitarian crisis, with about 34 million people—almost two out of every three Sudanese—needing assistance, according to the U.N. The fighting has wrecked urban areas and has been marked by atrocities, including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings, that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the U.N. and international rights groups.
"Rape and sexual violence are rampant," Türk said, highlighting the compounding forms of violence targeting vulnerable populations, particularly women and girls.
Why This Matters:
The sharp escalation in drone warfare targeting civilians reveals how modern military technology, when supplied to warring parties without accountability, can exponentially increase civilian suffering. With two-thirds of Sudan's population now requiring humanitarian assistance, the conflict demonstrates the urgent need for international mechanisms to halt arms flows to parties committing atrocities and to ensure documentation of war crimes. The 600% increase in drone-related deaths in a single year underscores that without coordinated international pressure and enforcement of humanitarian law, civilians will continue bearing the brunt of a conflict characterized by systematic attacks on protected sites and populations. The call to preserve evidence and break the cycle of impunity reflects a recognition that justice and accountability remain essential to any sustainable resolution.