Drone strikes become Sudan’s deadliest threat to civilians, UN says

Armed drones have become the deadliest force facing civilians in Sudan, with the United Nations saying they caused more than 80% of conflict-related civilian deaths in the first four months of 2026 and killed at least 880 people. The toll has widened the war’s reach from battle lines into cities, airports and neighborhoods where families had already been living under siege, displacement and hunger.

The sharpest warning came from Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, after a surge in strikes across central Sudan. On March 12, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said more than 200 civilians had been killed by drones since March 4 in Kordofan and White Nile state alone. By May 11, Türk was saying drone attacks had become by far the leading cause of civilian deaths in the conflict, underscoring how quickly the killing escalated in just weeks.

Sudan’s war erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, and it entered its fourth year in April 2026 with the country increasingly carved up by remote warfare. The United Nations says the fighting has forced about 14 million people from their homes since it began, including about 9 million displaced inside Sudan and 4.4 million across borders. About 30.4 million people now need humanitarian assistance.

The drone threat is especially destabilizing because it can reach places civilians once viewed as comparatively safe. UN reporting said a drone strike on Khartoum International Airport on May 4 disrupted all flights, and that several targeted drone attacks hit other parts of Khartoum and Omdurman between April 28 and May 5. Those strikes have raised the cost and danger of moving aid, medicine and fuel through the capital region, while making it harder for civilians to know where the next attack will land.

Humanitarian agencies say the wider crisis is deepening at the same time. On May 15, the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization and UNICEF warned that nearly 19.5 million people in Sudan were facing crisis levels of acute food insecurity, and that more than 825,000 children were at risk of death from severe malnutrition in 2026. With external supply chains helping sustain both sides of the conflict, Sudan has become a stark example of how cheap, hard-to-detect drones can intensify urban warfare, weaken accountability and turn rear areas into front lines.