By Mat Nashed, The New Arab

 

CAIRO, 21 Feb. - (ANA) - Drones have reshaped the battlefield in Sudan since the country dissolved into an all-out war three years ago.

 

Both the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the regular army, known as the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), are increasingly using long and short-range drones to target major supply lines, food markets, hospitals, power stations and military bases.

 

One of the latest incidents occurred on 7 February when Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces launched a suicide drone at a vehicle that killed 24 passengers in the strategic province of North Kordofan. Eight women and children were among the dead.

 

The passengers had escaped a nearby village and were trying to reach a safer area before they were hit, according to the Sudan Doctors' Network, a local monitor.

 

The attack was among a barrage of suicide drones the RSF launched at civilian targets—including hospitals and UN convoys—over the weekend, drawing sharp condemnation from rights groups, regional states and diplomats.

 

The drone strikes occurred shortly after SAF broke the RSF's siege of two key cities in South Kordofan.

 

"The RSF tends to launch a barrage of drones to relieve pressure on their fighters when they lose control or withdraw from a key area," said a local relief worker, who requested anonymity due to the tense security environment.

 

 

 

 

Sudan's drone warfare epitomises the internationalisation of the conflict, which has seen rival regional powers pour in weapons to back their preferred client.

 

The UAE—despite repeated denials—has shipped Chinese artillery, mercenaries and drones to the violent paramilitary, according to US intelligence assessments, UN experts and rights groups.

 

SAF primarily receives weapons—including plenty of drones—from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran.

 

The indiscriminate use of drones is exacerbating what the UN has described as the largest humanitarian catastrophe in the world by most metrics.

 

Tens of thousands of people have been killed, while more than 13 million have been uprooted from their homes. In addition, the war has caused food scarcity and mass hunger across the country.

 

The persistent threat of drones is now compounding the suffering and terror.

 

"Civilians are collateral, and to add insult to injury, getting justice for [strikes against innocent people] will get even harder [than it already is]," said Hager Ali, who closely follows the flow of weapons into Sudan as a researcher with the German Institute for Global and Area Studies.

 

She explained that there is no legal framework to regulate the use of more automated drones, which helps belligerents evade accountability because such weapons operate with a degree of independence, reducing the need for remote control.

 

Drones are also less costly—in terms of money and personnel—than conventional aircraft. Early in the war, SAF's old Russian-made aircraft were easy to spot and take down, so multi-use drones and loitering munitions were quickly procured to replace them, said Ali.

 

The RSF, she added, quickly accrued drones to counter SAF's air fleet.

 

"The use of drones is a natural evolution in the war. Each is adapting to the combat environment and trying to get an edge over the other," she told TNA.

 

 

 

 

As the war drags on, drones are multiplying on the battlefield each week, according to open-source experts and news reports.

 

The New York Times recently uncovered a clandestine drone operation in Egypt's western desert region.

 

The base includes multiple hangars storing Turkish-made Akinci drones, a devastating weapon that has more range and holds three times more bombs than its predecessor: the Bayraktar TB2.

 

The drones are disrupting a vital RSF supply route which links its stronghold in Darfur to the Libyan town of Kufra, controlled by Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Arab Army (LNAA).

 

However, SAF drones are also causing significant collateral damage, particularly their short-range suicide drones.

 

On 5 February, local monitors reported that a munition hit a market in the Abiey region of Southwest Kordofan, near the border with South Sudan. The strike killed 12 people and burned numerous shops.

 

"SAF has been targeting markets since the beginning of the war… but its method of doing so has changed [from using aircraft] …to relying on cheap, one-way drones, also called 'loitering munitions'," according to an analysis by Sudan War Monitor, a website that uses open-source methods to track battlefield dynamics.

 

Army spokesperson, Nabil Abdullah, did not comment on the incident in Abiey when contacted by TNA.

 

Meanwhile, the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, which uses satellite imagery to track developments in Sudan, spotted dozens of RSF drone launchers in the capital of South Darfur, Nyala.

 

The Executive Director of the lab, Nathaniel Raymond, told TNA that his team spotted at least 86 drone launchers in two locations in the city.

 

"They are just sitting there in groves, about eight kilometres apart," he said.

 

 

 

 

Despite the RSF's growing drone fleet, the group seems to be on the back foot, said Raymond.

 

He told TNA that SAF and its backers are using air cover to help their infantry advance on the ground in the Kordofan region. SAF owes its recent success to their ability to disrupt the RSF's supply lines into Darfur.

 

However, the RSF has recently opened a new front in Blue Nile State, a region bordering Ethiopia and South Sudan.

 

A recent investigation by Reuters found that the paramilitary and their ally, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement - North (SPLM-N), are likely operating out of a training base in Ethiopia's lawless Benishangul Gumuz region.

 

Raymond believes that the RSF's new front aims to divert SAF's attention in the Kordofan region, perhaps just long enough for the rainy season to arrive in May.

 

The rainy season often causes flooding and wetlands, which force ground offensives to halt. Yet, civilians believe that RSF drone attacks could pick up during this period.

 

One local relief worker, who requested anonymity due to the tense security environment, told TNA that the RSF already fires a barrage of drones at North Kordofan's capital of el-Obeid every Friday morning.

 

El-Obeid has absorbed tens of thousands of displaced people from surrounding regions, with many living in open-air camps, according to UN agencies and local relief workers.

 

After the RSF committed mass killings while capturing North Darfur's capital of el-Fasher in October 2025, the local relief worker said many people in el-Obeid feared they would be next.

 

But now, he said, people seem a little calmer now that the RSF has been pushed a little.

 

"The drones are making life difficult for civilians… but at least many people consider el-Obeid to be more secure than before," he told TNA.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/22 February 2026 - - -