As a brand new report highlights the lots of of civilian casualties from armed drone strikes throughout Africa, within the newest information reaching Radio Dabanga, the sixth 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 navy drone strikes in battle zones throughout Africa over the previous years. A report launched as we speak by Drone Wars UK, entitled Death on Delivery attracts consideration to greater than 943 civilian deaths and untold accidents, in not less than 50 separate incidents between November 2021 and November 2024, together with Sudan, Ethiopia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Somalia. It requires a global regime of management over the commerce, trafficking, and proliferation of unmanned aerial autos (UAVs).
The report revealed by Drone Wars UK as we speak, which cites Radio Dabanga as one in every of its sources for Sudan, highlights mounting civilian dying tolls in states newly working imported medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) sort armed drones throughout the continent, from producers in Türkiye, China, and Iran, and deployed by each the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It additionally 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 additionally confirms a number of stories by Radio Dabanga together with the use of Iranian Mohajer-6 armed drones by the SAF. It additionally corroborates the findings of a report in January by the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) on the Yale School of Public Health, which additionally cites Radio Dabanga as a supply, with satellite tv for pc imagery from December 2024 to January 2025 displaying three UAVs assessed as FH-95 drones, identified for digital surveillance, warfare, and strike capabilities, at Nyala Airport, within the capital of South Darfur, at the moment under the control of the RSF, seemingly equipped by ‘an outside foreign actor’.
In the most recent information 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 every day briefing as we speak, SAF Division Command, claims that the armed forces had been in a position to management quite a few buildings in Lafta Taqru and safe the neighbourhood of El Salam. It stated 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 assault on El Maliha at daybreak on Sunday, killing not less than two individuals and wounding others.
The Malha Resistance Committee stated that the bombing that occurred on Saturday night and Sunday morning led to the dying of two individuals, and indicated on its Facebook web page that plane had been flying overhead.
They referred to as on the general public to show off the lights within the streets, neighbourhoods, markets and different private and non-private locations. The committee referred to as on the general public to not contact unidentified objects, and to keep away from gathering in public locations.
‘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 profit from the near-relentless trafficking of lately manufactured weaponry into Sudan from China, Russia, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Yemen, and Türkiye. The failures of worldwide arms commerce regulation are clearly proven in Sudan, the place mounting proof of large-scale human rights abuses appears to have achieved little to stem the move of munitions into the nation. Drones, too, type a part of this lethal image.
“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 factors out that whereas strikes by the SAF have been most documented and verified, stories of drone use by the RSF – notably, although not solely, for surveillance functions – have additionally emerged. “Identification specialists have verified Iranian, Chinese, and UAE-supplied drones as amongst these deployed in Sudan, although unconfirmed stories {that a} supply of Bayraktar TB2s arrived in Sudan through Egypt in late 2023 might once more point out Türkiye’s position within the tide of proliferation. More clearly evident is Iran’s seemingly involvement, with the Mohajer-6 and Zajil-3 each recognized in satellite tv for pc imagery from navy bases within the nation.
Case Study: Khartoum
The report’s case research on Sudan paperwork 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 useless, 55 wounded, and “turned Bashair University Hospital into a bloodbath”.
“At Goro market, reported to be the one market nonetheless serving town’s southern Mayo district, early mornings see households purchasing for meals and different important provides. At round 7am on the tenth of September 2023, nonetheless, aerial strikes on the ‘crowded’ market killed as many as 47 individuals, in an assault that media sources pose as being delivered by drones. While no group has claimed accountability for the assault, stories by Mnemonic, an investigative NGO targeted 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 said the market was an RSF navy stronghold.
Accounts of the incident from native events level to the dimensions of damage, dying, and civilian struggling attributable to 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 native medical workers in a position to come to deal with the wounded as numbers continued to reach. In an announcement, Médecins Sans Frontières emergency coordinator Marie Burton said 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 contains information on Sudan compiled by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) Centre, an unbiased worldwide NGO that collects information on violent battle and protest in all international locations and territories on the planet.
‘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 newest ACLED reporting demonstrates that the SAF’s early monopoly on fight drones has been undermined in current months by the RSF’s acquisition of its personal 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 charges Sudan eighth in its newest worldwide Conflict Index.
As beforehand highlighted by Radio Dabanga, a separate ACLED report in January, masking 1 January to 29 November 2024, enumerates not less than 226 drone strikes by the SAF, and 12 profitable and 44 intercepted drone strikes by the RSF, together with Khartoum, El Gezira, and North Darfur.
Radio Dabanga has approached each the SAF and RSF independently for remark. In the previous, each belligerents, apart from official statements, have been reticent to reply to questions from Radio Dabanga relating to ongoing navy operations.
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