The United Nations (UN) has said that over 1000 people have been killed by drones in Sudan in 2026. Both the Sudanese state military and the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces militia use drones. The three-year old war has displaced millions and killed thousands.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said:
We are seeing a global shift in how war is waged.
The UN has warned for many years against the development of lethal autonomous weapons. This reality is now upon us.
Relentless drone attacks have caused mass casualties and terrorized civilians.
Turk was speaking at a UN event in Geneva about the rise of drone warfare around the globe. A senior UK minister was also in attendance…
Sudan under attack
The RSF, backed by the UAE, is fighting the Sudanese government, with gold interests and regional influence at stake.
Numerous foreign actors, including the UK, have caused the war to fester through active participation and/or outright passivity. Israel, too, is a player in the war.
The war in Sudan is theoretically between the Arab-majority RSF and the Sudanese government. But foreign states pursuing their own interests are backing the combatants. Turkey, Egypt and many more countries are pursuing their own interests in Sudan too.
The RSF has killed Sudanese civilians in vast numbers. Some estimates say 150,000 people have died and more than 10 million civilians have been displaced by fighting.
Massive increase in drone use
The UN reported:
The US-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) observed an 81% increase in drone attacks and a 600% increase in drone-related deaths in the war-torn east African country between 2024 and 2025.
And at the Geneva summit, Turk warned:
The prospect of billion-dollar, AI-enabled weapons [being] brought down by billion-dollar, AI-enabled defensive shields exposes the horror, emptiness, and futility of war.
Autonomous weapons cannot become a license for atrocity crimes.
UK Africa minister Jenny Chapman was also in attendance. Displaying more neck than a herd of giraffes given the UK’s role in the war, Chapman told the audience:
Sudan’s warring parties have increased their brutality from the skies, using drones supplied by their backers to target civilians and aid workers.
This is deplorable and must stop.
Adding that organisations must:
document abuses and preserve evidence – essential steps to breaking the cycle of impunity.
UK role in slaughter is known
As the Canary has reported repeatedly:
British military components have shown up on the battlefield in RSF hands. The UK is a major arms supplier to UAE.
Even more damningly:
Sources have also claimed the UK downgraded the [humanitarian] situation in Sudan to avoid “pissing off the Emiratis”.
The Canary reported on 11 June that the first war crimes claim had been lodged against RSF in Kenya. Twelve victims backed by a Swiss legal NGO urged Kenya’s chief of prosecution to pursue the case. Associated Press (AP) reported on 9 June:
It is the first attempt to prosecute members of the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, the paramilitary group fighting against the Sudanese military for over three years, outside Sudan.
The group, which has been accused by rights organizations of committing atrocities amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, has ties with Kenya’s government.
The war in Sudan garners very little attention in the West. Yet the UK’s quiet but key role in a growing list of atrocities is unmistakable. Africa minister Jenny Chapman – and her bosses in No 10 – simply cannot be unaware of this fact.
Which, in turn, suggests that they’re peddling the same old neocolonial falsehoods.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
