Rights office warns of ‘devastating impact’ as cheap, high-tech weapons fuel civilian deaths; hospital attack during Eid al-Fitr kills 70 as conflict spills into Chad.
GENEVA — More than 500 civilians have been killed in drone strikes across Sudan between January 1 and mid-March, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning of a sharp escalation in the use of unmanned aerial weapons that is exacting a devastating toll on populated areas.
The UN rights office documented at least 500 civilian deaths from drone attacks during the 10-week period, with the vast majority concentrated in three states within the strategic Kordofan region—the current epicenter of Sudan’s three-year civil war.
“This is the devastating impact of high-tech and relatively cheap weapons in populated areas,” UN rights office spokeswoman Marta Hurtado told reporters in Geneva.
Southern Kordofan has emerged as the fiercest battleground in the conflict between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The region serves as a vital corridor linking RSF strongholds in western Darfur with army-controlled territories to the east. Near-daily drone strikes have killed dozens at a time as the army seeks to halt the RSF’s advance, pushing paramilitary forces back toward Darfur and away from the capital, Khartoum.
Hurtado said the deadliest period came in the first two weeks of March, when over 277 civilians were killed—more than three-quarters of them in drone strikes. Deadly attacks continued through the final week of Ramadan, she added.
In a particularly devastating strike, a drone hit the El-Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur state on March 20—the first day of Eid al-Fitr—killing 70 people, including 13 children, and wounding 146 others.
“The hospital, including its emergency, maternity and paediatric units, are fully out of operation—further constraining desperately needed access of many in the area to the right to health,” Hurtado said.
The UN also warned that the violence is increasingly spilling beyond Sudan’s borders. A drone strike on the Chadian town of Tine on March 18 killed at least 24 civilians and wounded some 60 others, following an earlier RSF ground offensive in the area.
“Widening drone attacks are spilling across Sudan’s borders, with serious risk of further escalation carrying regional consequences,” Hurtado said.
Since fighting erupted in April 2023, Sudan’s war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 11 million, creating what humanitarian agencies describe as the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
Hurtado called on all nations, particularly those with influence over the warring parties, to end arms transfers that are fueling the conflict and being used “in manifest disregard of the obligation to protect civilians.”
“There needs to be renewed diplomatic efforts toward an urgent ceasefire to bring the conflict to an end,” she said.
