'Sharp increase' in drone strikes leads to 1,000 civilian deaths in Sudan

1,000 people killed by drones this year in Sudan as humanitarian crisis grows Tue 16 Jun 2026 at 12:18am In short: More than 1,000 civilians have been killed by drones this year in Sudan. Rape and sexual violence are also rampant in conflict-torn Sudan. What's next? The United Nations says, unless reversed, "these patterns will further erode protection and deepen Sudan's human rights catastrophe". A "sharp increase" in the use of drone warfare in conflict-torn Sudan — where more than 1,000 civilians were killed in such strikes in the first five months of this year — has been condemned by the United Nations human rights chief. Drone warfare has become an increasingly prominent feature of Sudan's conflict since it erupted in April 2023 between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). "In Sudan, the horrific conflict has expanded and escalated, marked by a sharp increase in the use of drone warfare," UN rights chief Volker Turk said in an opening address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. "Between January and May 2026, our office documented more than 1,000 civilians killed by drone strikes." He also said that "rape and sexual violence are rampant". World's largest hunger crisis Now in its fourth year, the conflict in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 11 million from their homes, creating what the UN describes as the world's largest displacement and hunger crises. Sudan's warring parties are increasingly employing arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearance to control the country's embattled population, the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan warned. In an update to the Human Rights Council, the mission said that widespread violations of international human rights law, international humanitarian law and war crimes committed by Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and their respective allies show no sign of stopping. Such acts may also constitute crimes against humanity, the mission said. "Civilians continue to bear the overwhelming burden of this conflict," mission chair Mohamed Chande Othman said. "They are subjected not only to direct attacks and violence but also to a growing system of repression, arbitrary detention and fear that has penetrated every aspect of life. "Unless reversed, these patterns will further erode protection and deepen Sudan's human rights catastrophe." Fatal aerial attacks Drone strikes on the strategic city of El-Obeid killed 23 people, a rights group and witnesses said last week, in one of the deadliest aerial attacks the city has seen since the war began. "The roofs of houses collapsed on their occupants," a resident of the Al-Matar neighbourhood in the city's east said. El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, has been partially encircled for months by paramilitary forces and sits along a key route linking RSF-held areas in the western Darfur region to army-controlled regions in the east. Fighting has intensified in recent months in the Kordofan region and Blue Nile state near the Ethiopian border, particularly after the RSF captured El-Fasher in October, the army's last major stronghold in western Darfur. Kordofan — home to oil deposits, arable land and the RSF's most powerful paramilitary allies — remains a key and fiercely contested battleground. The war in Sudan, where two rival generals are competing for power, was described as one of the world's most neglected crises this month by the Norwegian Refugee Council. AFP/ABC