Sudan's Drone Warfare Escalation Fuels Devastating Civilian Crisis

Residents in the Imtidad Nasser neighbourhood, east of Sudan’s capital Khartoum, are facing a new and terrifying reality: skies filled with drones. Ahmed Abdel Hamid, a resident, recounted hearing the drone buzz before anti-aircraft fire and two massive explosions rocked the area, tragically killing three children from a local family. This incident is part of a devastating wave of drone attacks across Sudan that has claimed over 160 lives in recent days, signifying a lethal escalation in the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in April 2023. The increased use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by both sides has pushed the war into residential areas, driven by evolving battlefield strategies and a mutual aim to exhaust the opponent.

The deployment of drones represents a significant shift in the brutal civil war, now in its fourth year, which has resulted in at least 59,000 deaths, according to conflict monitor ACLED. Approximately 14 million people have been displaced, with 4.5 million fleeing the country. Both the SAF and RSF continue to contest control over various regions, primarily through ground assaults and fighting, often at a severe cost to civilians. The massacre in el-Fasher last year, described by Amnesty International as “ethnic cleansing,” brought the crisis to international attention. RSF fighters reportedly murdered tens of thousands of inhabitants after an 18-month siege and subsequent capture of the city, which was the last SAF stronghold in the Darfur region.

The intensified reliance on drones by both factions indicates a deliberate move towards long-range, preemptive operations. For the SAF, drones are a critical tool for navigating challenging terrain and countering RSF advantages. Military expert Abu Bakr Abdel Rahim explained that the army's primary objective for escalating drone strikes in Darfur and Kordofan regions is to target command and control centres, fuel and ammunition depots, and crucial supply routes, particularly those connected to the borders with Libya, Chad, and South Sudan. Abdel Rahim highlighted the strategic importance of geography, noting that the vastness of Darfur, separated from SAF strongholds in Kordofan by deserts and exposed roads, makes ground advances extremely difficult without substantial engineering, aerial, and logistical support. These targeted strikes, he added, aim to degrade the RSF’s capacity to mobilize forces, launch counterattacks, or retake lost strategic areas. By striking cities like Nyala, the SAF also seeks to undermine RSF morale and disrupt their efforts to establish parallel administrative structures.

Military officials cite specific tactical objectives for the recent escalation. Mohamed Didan, spokesperson for the SAF’s Special Action Forces in Kordofan, reported launching “75 air strikes targeting fixed and moving targets, along with infantry forces, vehicles, commanders and individuals from the Rapid Support Forces” across Kordofan, West Darfur, and South Darfur. Didan directly linked the RSF’s drone attacks on Khartoum to their battlefield setbacks, attributing the escalation to the reported killing of “about 80 mobilised personnel” in strikes targeting them in the Al-Dabbab area of West Kordofan. He further accused the RSF of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, citing attacks on Khartoum airport, fuel stations in Damazin, and an electrical transformer station in Tendelti city, North Kordofan, which caused widespread blackouts.

In response, the RSF issued a statement accusing the military of carrying out “massacres in the livestock market in Nyala and al-Na’am market in Abyei, and at a truck station in the al-Dabbab area in West Kordofan” using drones. A Sudanese government official, speaking anonymously to Al Jazeera, asserted that the military’s drone usage is purely tactical, stating, “The army does not target civilians, but it considers all military and logistical sites and supply lines of the Rapid Support Forces as legitimate targets.”

Civilians are bearing the brunt of this intensified conflict. The deadliest recent incident occurred near a market in al-Dabba town, West Kordofan, where a drone strike on a transport hub killed 80 people. Earlier on Monday, an SAF drone attack on an RSF stronghold in Nyala resulted in 17 fatalities, while an RSF strike on a gathering of displaced persons in Blue Nile province killed 41 individuals. The United Nations has condemned these strikes. Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, expressed alarm over the “continued deadly drone strikes across the country that are killing civilians, including children, and that are disrupting central services.” An investigative report by the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) revealed that 21 different drone models have been employed since the war began, with a diverse international supply chain sourcing them mainly from Belarus, Iran, China, Russia, Sudan, and Turkiye. The CIR investigation found that the RSF has deployed 10 types of drones, while the SAF has used five models, collectively contributing to a terrifying and rapidly mechanizing conflict where the skies offer no safety for civilians.