More than 1,000 civilians died in drone strikes across war-torn Sudan during the first five months of 2026, according to United Nations officials, as unmanned aerial vehicle warfare escalates a conflict that has already claimed at least 59,000 lives and created the world's largest humanitarian crisis.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk told the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday that his office documented a "sharp increase" in drone attacks between January and May this year, 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.
The Expanding Conflict
The war in the northeastern African country broke out 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 conflict 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 said the actual toll was almost certainly higher, given reporting difficulties.
At least 2,670 people, including combatants and civilians, were killed in 2025, marking a 600% increase in drone-related deaths and an 81% increase in drone attacks compared to 2024, according to ACLED. 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.
International Response and Evidence Preservation
U.K. Minister for Africa and International Development Jenny Chapman said 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." She 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."
Both warring parties have increasingly launched explosive-laden drones that, in multiple cases, targeted civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, dams, schools, markets and displacement camps. Drone strikes have become the deadliest threat to civilians in a conflict, overshadowed first by wars in Gaza and then in Iran.
Humanitarian Crisis Deepens
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.
Why This Matters:
The dramatic escalation of drone warfare in Sudan reveals the consequences of unchecked foreign military support to warring factions and the failure of international institutions to enforce accountability. With civilian deaths from drone strikes increasing 600% in a single year, the conflict demonstrates how external powers enabling combatants with advanced weaponry can transform regional disputes into catastrophic humanitarian emergencies. The documentation of evidence, as emphasized by U.K. officials, represents a necessary step toward accountability, though the immediate challenge remains stopping the supply chains that fuel the violence. With 34 million Sudanese requiring humanitarian assistance, the international community faces mounting costs for relief operations while the fundamental security crisis continues unabated, underscoring the limits of humanitarian intervention without addressing the military dynamics driving the conflict.