Drone strikes accounted for over 80 percent of civilian deaths in Sudan’s civil war during the first four months of this year, a senior United Nations official said on Tuesday, making drones the leading cause of civilian fatalities in Africa’s largest war.
The stark findings, announced by Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, highlighted the way Sudan’s catastrophic war, now stretching into its fourth year, is largely being driven by armed drones supplied or funded by foreign countries.
The U.N. documented 880 civilian deaths between January and April from drone strikes carried out by Sudan’s military or its paramilitary enemy, the Rapid Support Forces, or R.S.F., sometimes from bases in neighboring countries.
“Drones have changed the nature of warfare in Sudan,” said Alan Boswell, director of the Horn of Africa project at the International Crisis Group, a conflict-resolution research organization. “Both sides have major backing from outside powers, which supply them with top-grade drone technology. Together, they are destroying Sudan.”
Sudan’s military operates drones from a secret base deep in Egypt’s southern desert, The New York Times reported earlier this year. More recently, Sudan’s military accused Ethiopia of providing bases for the R.S.F. to carry out drone strikes deep inside Sudan.
The accusation included strikes on May 4 against the airport in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, which caused Sudan to recall its ambassador to Ethiopia. Tensions between the two countries have risen in recent months as the R.S.F. seized territory close to the Ethiopian border.
At an emergency meeting of the Arab League on Sunday, Sudan’s military accused the United Arab Emirates, which it says backs the R.S.F., of providing drones that flew from bases in Ethiopia, according to news reports. Ethiopia and the Emirates denied the charges.
Since the city of El Fasher in Darfur fell to the R.S.F. last fall, the focus of the fighting has shifted to the Kordofan region, where drone strikes are the most intense. There, starvation and plunder have become a feature of the war in cities surrounded by fighters.
The R.S.F. uses powerful Chinese-made drones, while Sudan’s army relies on drones manufactured in Iran and Turkey.
Strikes in northern and southern Kordofan on May 8 killed 26 civilians, Mr. Türk said. A single strike, blamed on Sudan’s military, killed 15 civilians who were traveling in a truck, a local rights group said.
Last week, the Sudanese military conducted strikes targeting senior R.S.F. leaders in the paramilitary’s stronghold of Nyala in southern Darfur.
“This conflict is on the cusp of entering yet another new, even deadlier phase,” Mr. Türk said, reiterating calls for foreign countries to stop supplying drones to both parties.
Across the nation, over 10 million Sudanese are experiencing severe and extreme levels of hunger. At least 13 million have been forced from their homes by the war, making Sudan the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
