Sudan army claims ‘100 drones downed in 10 days’ as call for control of UAV trade cites ‘943 civilian dead across Africa’
An advanced Iranian Mohajer-6 drone, as supplied by Teheran to the Sudanese Armed Forces (File photo: Hadi Hirbodvash / Fars Media Corporation / CC BY 4.0)
As a new report highlights the hundreds of civilian casualties from armed drone strikes across Africa, in the latest news reaching Radio Dabanga, the 6th Infantry Division of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) claims to have shot down “more than 100 drones in 10 days”. Hundreds of civilians have died in military drone strikes in conflict zones across Africa over the past years. A report released today by Drone Wars UK, entitled Death on Delivery draws attention to more than 943 civilian deaths and untold injuries, in at least 50 separate incidents between November 2021 and November 2024, including Sudan, Ethiopia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Somalia. It calls for an international regime of control over the trade, trafficking, and proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The report published by Drone Wars UK today, which cites Radio Dabanga as one of its sources for Sudan, highlights mounting civilian death tolls in states newly operating imported medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) type armed drones across the continent, from manufacturers in Türkiye, China, and Iran, and deployed by both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It also highlights: “Any export of military equipment to Sudan would be in breach of the UN arms embargo imposed in 2004.”
“At an absolute minimum, more than 943 civilians have been killed in at least 50 separate incidents between November 2021 and November 2024,” the report asserts. “Of the six states investigated [including Sudan], five have been verified as operating Bayraktar TB-2 drones produced by Turkish drone manufacturer Baykar, with several also operating Chinese Wing Loong II and Iranian Mohajer-6 armed drones. Most are engaged in ongoing domestic military campaigns against armed insurgent groups but regularly fail to distinguish between civilians and combatants in their operations” the Drone Wars report says.
This also confirms several reports by Radio Dabanga including the use of Iranian Mohajer-6 armed drones by the SAF. It also corroborates the findings of a report in January by the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at the Yale School of Public Health, which also cites Radio Dabanga as a source, with satellite imagery from December 2024 to January 2025 showing three UAVs assessed as FH-95 drones, known for electronic surveillance, warfare, and strike capabilities, at Nyala Airport, in the capital of South Darfur, currently under the control of the RSF, likely supplied by ‘an outside foreign actor’.
In the latest news reaching Radio Dabanga, the 6th Infantry Division of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) claims to have shot down “more than 100 drones in 10 days”.
In a daily briefing today, SAF Division Command, claims that the armed forces were able to control a number of buildings in Lafta Taqru and secure the neighbourhood of El Salam. It said that “units of the armed forces carried out operations targeting positions of the RSF in the northern sector, which resulted in the destruction of a number of vehicles and the injury of a number of RSF personnel.”
Also in North Darfur, the RSF launched a drone attack on El Maliha at dawn on Sunday, killing at least two people and wounding others.
The Malha Resistance Committee said that the bombing that took place on Saturday evening and Sunday morning led to the death of two people, and indicated on its Facebook page that aircraft were flying overhead.
They called on the public to turn off the lights in the streets, neighbourhoods, markets and other public and private places. The committee called on the public not to touch unidentified objects, and to avoid gathering in public places.
‘The failures of international arms trade regulation is clearly shown in Sudan, where mounting evidence of large-scale human rights abuses seems to have done little to stem the flow of munitions into the country…’ – Drone Wars UK
Today’s Drone Wars laments that “the warring RSF and SAF benefit from the near-relentless trafficking of recently manufactured weaponry into Sudan from China, Russia, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Yemen, and Türkiye. The failures of international arms trade regulation are clearly shown in Sudan, where mounting evidence of large-scale human rights abuses seems to have done little to stem the flow of munitions into the country. Drones, too, form part of this deadly picture.
“It is unclear if any one supplier is singularly responsible for delivering the UAVs deployed by both the SAF and the RSF, whose consequences for civilian populations have been grave. Khartoum, the country’s capital, now stands as the war’s primary battleground. Drone strikes in high-civilian-density areas – like markets and residential streets – have intensified the devastation of the city, and a daily mounting civilian death toll.”
It points out that while strikes by the SAF have been most documented and verified, reports of drone use by the RSF – particularly, though not exclusively, for surveillance purposes – have also emerged. “Identification specialists have verified Iranian, Chinese, and UAE-supplied drones as among those deployed in Sudan, though unconfirmed reports that a delivery of Bayraktar TB2s arrived in Sudan via Egypt in late 2023 may again indicate Türkiye’s role in the tide of proliferation. More clearly evident is Iran’s likely involvement, with the Mohajer-6 and Zajil-3 both identified in satellite imagery from military bases in the country.
Case Study: Khartoum
The report’s case study on Sudan documents the aerial bombardment of the crowded Goro Market south of Khartoum on September 10, 2023, covered extensively at the time by Radio Dabanga, which claimed 46 dead, 55 wounded, and “turned Bashair University Hospital into a bloodbath”.
“At Goro market, reported to be the only market still serving the city’s southern Mayo district, early mornings see families shopping for food and other essential supplies. At around 7am on the 10th of September 2023, however, aerial strikes on the ‘crowded’ market killed as many as 47 people, in an attack that media sources pose as being delivered by drones. While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, reports by Mnemonic, an investigative NGO focused on documenting human rights violations, conclude that ‘allegations and witness statements suggest that the attack on the market was carried out by drones or military aircraft believed to be affiliated with Sudanese government forces’. Previously, the SAF had stated the market was an RSF military stronghold.
Accounts of the incident from local parties point to the scale of injury, death, and civilian suffering caused by the bombing. Local Bashair University hospital was reported by the Sudanese Doctors Union to be so overrun with casualties that an ‘urgent appeal’ was issued to local medical staff able to come to treat the wounded as numbers continued to arrive. In a statement, Médecins Sans Frontières emergency coordinator Marie Burton stated she had “…Stopped counting how many wounded had arrived. Double amputation of the arms for one patient, [and] visceral surgeries. The injuries are insufferable”.
ACLED
The Drone Wars report includes data on Sudan compiled by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) Centre, an independent international NGO that collects data on violent conflict and protest in all countries and territories in the world.
‘Innocent civilians in Sudan continue to have their homes, lives, and communities devastated by these indiscriminately-used weapons, as they land in increasingly unrestrained hands…’ – ACLED
The latest ACLED reporting demonstrates that the SAF’s early monopoly on combat drones has been undermined in recent months by the RSF’s acquisition of its own UAVs from its regional allies. “Innocent civilians in Sudan continue to have their homes, lives, and communities devastated by these indiscriminately-used weapons, as they land in increasingly unrestrained hands,” ACLED says, and rates Sudan eighth in its latest worldwide Conflict Index.
As previously highlighted by Radio Dabanga, a separate ACLED report in January, covering 1 January to 29 November 2024, enumerates at least 226 drone strikes by the SAF, and 12 successful and 44 intercepted drone strikes by the RSF, including Khartoum, El Gezira, and North Darfur.
Radio Dabanga has approached both the SAF and RSF independently for comment. In the past, both belligerents, with the exception of official statements, have been reticent to respond to questions from Radio Dabanga regarding ongoing military operations.
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