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By Ben Farmer
Sudan’s three-year-long war is being rapidly transformed by the use of drone warfare technology, as strikes kill hundreds of people.
Both the Sudanese army and its paramilitary enemy, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), are increasingly using remote-controlled aircraft to carry out long-range attacks deep into enemy-held territory.
Around 700 people have been killed by drones so far in 2026 alone, and use of the weapons is expected to allow the enemies to keep fighting through the coming rainy season, which usually heralds a slowing down in operations.
Sudan’s catastrophic civil war is the latest conflict to be transformed by drone aircraft, which have already become the defining weapons of the Ukraine war.
As the Sudan war passed its three-year mark, international officials told National Security News that both sides appeared to be doubling down and that international negotiations had lost momentum.
Diplomats describe the war as an intractable quagmire of personal rivalry, ethnic tension and regional competition, with neither side strong enough to win.
Death toll estimates vary from around 60,000 to several hundred thousand. The health system has collapsed and the dead are not systematically counted.
“Unfortunately, the most likely scenario for the next year is continued attritional conflict, with the region and neighbouring countries becoming increasingly pulled into it,” said one official.
Both sides are said to have renewed their military resolve as talks have failed.
The Sudanese armed forces are reported to have been using Iranian-made Mohajer-6 drones alongside Chinese models and Turkish Bayraktar versions.
The RSF, meanwhile, has been deploying Chinese models and modified commercial DJI drones capable of carrying 120mm mortar shells.
As usage continues, analysts expect to see each side attempt to set up domestic production lines so they are less reliant on supplies from foreign backers.
Drones have come to the fore during the fighting in the Kordofan region, which has become the country’s main battleground since the fall of El Fasher in Darfur late last year.
A new report by the Soufan Centre think tank said the RSF had made heavy use of drones to blockade the Southern Kordofan cities of Kadugli and Dilling.
The Sudanese armed forces then used bombardments from their own drones to break the blockade in recent weeks.
Both sides have been accused of killing large numbers of civilians with the weapons.
Among the most notorious recent attacks, an RSF drone was accused of killing 24 people on 07 February when it struck a vehicle carrying refugees.
A Sudanese army drone was reported to have killed at least 40 people when it struck a wedding celebration in an RSF-held town in North Darfur state earlier this month.
Tom Fletcher, a former British diplomat who is now the United Nations humanitarian chief, said last week that the conflict had become “an atrocities laboratory”.
As well as massacres, the blocking of aid supplies and the use of sexual violence, he said schools and hospitals were being targeted.
He said: “Drones have killed 700 people just this year, and 130 humanitarians have been killed over three years.”
