Fatal drone strikes on civilians persist in Sudan's Kordofan, UN says

The U.N. rights chief said on Monday that fatal drone strikes on civilians in Sudan are continuing even after the army broke prolonged sieges of southern cities held by the RSF paramilitary forces.

Greater Kordofan, a region comprising three states, has emerged as the latest frontline in Sudan's nearly three-year conflict, which has displaced millions of people and triggered a humanitarian crisis.

Sudan's army says it ended the RSF's siege of al-Dalanj in late January and Kadugli in early February. Residents of both cities had faced hunger and medical shortages as supplies were blocked.

"But drone strikes by both sides continue, resulting in dozens of civilian deaths and injuries," Volker Turk told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva during a debate on Sudan. 

His office has documented over 90 civilian deaths and 142 injuries caused by drone strikes carried out by both the RSF and the armed forces from late January to February 6, he said.

Among those incidents were three strikes on health facilities in South Kordofan that killed 31 people last week, according to the World Health Organization. The United Nations' top official in the country also said that on February 6 trucks carrying food aid to displaced people outside the city of al-Obeid in North Kordofan were hit.

The RSF denied responsibility for those strikes in a statement on Saturday, and also rejected accusations by the Sudanese government that it carried out a deadly strike on a bus carrying civilians.

Drones have become a key weapon used by both sides in the war, and allowed the RSF to overcome the army's air dominance earlier on. Their use has led to numerous incidents of mass civilian casualties, as well as reports documented by Reuters that the RSF has used drones to repeatedly follow medical staff and target medical facilities.

The Yale Humanitarian Research Lab said last week, as of February 4, at least 40 objects consistent with long-range Chinese kamikaze drones were visible around the RSF-controlled Nyala airport in Darfur, according to satellite imagery. The group said it could not determine whether the drones had been used in specific attacks.

Rights workers had feared that Kordofan's cities would suffer the same fate as Darfur's al-Fashir, which fell to RSF forces in October 2025 after a long siege that led to mass killings. 

Turk added that thousands of people from al-Fashir remain missing, saying some were undoubtedly dead while others are believed to be held in detention conditions he described as inhumane.