Sudan drone strikes now drive the war's civilian death toll, UN says

Sudan drone strikes have killed at least 306 people and wounded hundreds more in the first three weeks of October alone, according to the UN human rights office. The office documented the toll in a statement issued in Geneva on Friday, October 23, describing the surge as a grim escalation in a conflict now in its fourth year. UN human rights chief Volker Türk said the strikes, attributed to both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, hit homes, markets, hospitals, displacement sites, power stations and water sources across Kordofan, Darfur, Blue Nile, Khartoum and other states.

"The increasing use of drones, already accounting for the majority of conflict-related civilian deaths in Sudan this year, is deeply disturbing and is exacting a horrifying toll," Türk said. "Scores of civilians have been killed and vital infrastructure and services on which they depend eviscerated, driving further displacement and deepening the already severe humanitarian crisis." The October tally confirms Sudan drone strikes as the leading cause of conflict-related civilian deaths in the country this year. For civilians on the ground, the danger now follows them into camps and markets far from any front line.

Strikes hit the places people fled to

One pattern in the UN's account stands out: the repeated hitting of places where civilians had already fled for safety. Between October 6 and 10, alleged drone strikes on shelters for internally displaced people in Ghubeish and El Nuhud in West Kordofan, attributed by the UN office to the Sudanese Armed Forces, killed at least twenty-five civilians and wounded more than thirty others, including women and children. On October 9, an alleged RSF drone struck a crowd of displaced people doing artisanal gold mining near a displacement site in Abu Shendi, Blue Nile state, killing at least 31 people, most of them women and children. The office's account of Sudan drone strikes shows attacks on displacement sites driving a surge in casualties among people already uprooted by the fighting.

Gold fields and a truck convoy in the crosshairs

Sudan drone strikes are also reaching into the war economy that keeps the fighting going. On two mid-October dates, alleged RSF drones hit the Bajaun gold mining area in Gadeer locality, South Kordofan, killing 42 civilians and wounding two dozen more. The UN office raised concerns about the deliberate targeting of sites valued for their economic output, noting that under the laws of war, a site's financial contribution to the war effort is not by itself enough to make it a military objective. On October 18, a transportation truck was hit in a repeat "double tap" strike in Dibab, West Kordofan, an area controlled by the RSF, killing at least 139 people and wounding dozens more, according to the office.

The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces erupted in April 2023 and has become one of the world's worst humanitarian catastrophes. Aid workers estimate that more than 200,000 people have been killed, while over 13 million have been forced from their homes, creating the world's largest hunger and displacement crises. Sudan drone strikes have grown into the defining weapon of a conflict now fought in towns and markets far beyond any battlefield.

Türk renewed his call for the warring parties to respect international humanitarian law, including by not directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects. He also pressed for broader peace efforts to confront the continued influx of arms fuelling the conflict, and for an end to weapons transfers used in what he called manifest disregard of the protections the law gives civilians. As Sudan drone strikes exact a mounting toll, a negotiated settlement with human rights at its core, backed by accountability for the violations and abuses being committed, is the only feasible path to lasting peace in Sudan, the office said.

Sources: UN News: Sudan drone strikes killed at least 306 people in three weeks and OHCHR: Türk alarmed by surge in drone attacks killing hundreds in October.