Sudan protection crisis escalates as drone warfare surges, UN warns
May 17, 2026 (KHARTOUM) – The protection environment across Sudan has entered a catastrophic phase, characterized by systematic violence against civilians, severe movement restrictions, and the near-total collapse of protective infrastructure, a joint review of UN and humanitarian assessments revealed on Sunday.
The Sudan Protection Cluster warned that the breakdown of civilian defence systems is most acute across Darfur, Kordofan, and Khartoum. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have continued to launch indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets in northern and central Sudan, while imposing increasingly tight restrictions on populations trapped within their zones of control in Darfur and West Kordofan.
Attacks on civilians and unlawful killings remain the gravest nationwide concern. Bombardments, artillery shelling, and ground assaults continue to devastate residential areas, markets, IDP camps, and critical water infrastructure.
The explosive proliferation of drone warfare has fundamentally altered the security landscape. Combatants have increasingly relied on unmanned aerial vehicles to strike logistics, storage, and training hubs as conventional ground combat slows.
The human toll of this technological shift is devastating. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk recently disclosed that drone strikes killed 880 civilians between January and April 2026, accounting for over 80% of total conflict-related civilian fatalities during that four-month window.
These continuous assaults on civilian objects dismantle public healthcare, education, and humanitarian networks. The destruction has triggered cascading emergencies, including severe food insecurity and forced displacement. Humanitarian officials stress that official casualty figures are heavily suppressed by ongoing communication blackouts, systemic insecurity, and the fear of localized retaliation.
Gender-based violence remains pervasive and structural. Mass rapes, gang rapes, and sexual slavery are regularly documented along transit corridors, checkpoints, and overcrowded displacement camps. Women and girls face immense dangers when attempting to gather water or firewood, yet the collapse of health infrastructure has left survivors entirely cut off from clinical care and safe referral pathways.
Furthermore, deep-seated discrimination and social fragmentation shape how aid and protection are accessed. Displaced populations and returnees face systematic exclusion based on ethnic lines, tribal affiliations, or perceived political alignments, preventing vulnerable groups from obtaining identity documents, medical care, and housing.
Economic predation has mirrored the physical violence. Pervasive looting, extortion, and the forced eviction or burning of private properties continue unabated. Armed actors routinely confiscate livestock, land, vehicles, and food stocks, driving desperate families toward child labour, survival sex, or armed recruitment.
Encirclement and siege conditions have trapped thousands in frontline areas. In El Obeid, intensified hostilities and drone strikes have forced fleeing civilians onto hazardous, unmonitored routes without food, water, or communication tools, causing spikes in deaths from dehydration and exhaustion.
The conflict has taken an unprecedented toll on minors. Armed groups continue to forcibly recruit children for active combat, checkpoint duties, and intelligence gathering.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) recently confirmed the registration of 42,000 unaccompanied and separated children, with 5,000 located inside Sudan and the remainder scattered across neighbouring host countries. These children face acute risks of abduction, trafficking, and physical elimination.
Long-term survival is further threatened by massive explosive ordnance contamination across urban neighbourhoods, agricultural lands, and transport lines. Recent findings confirm the placement of landmines in previously unexploded ordnance-only sectors of Khartoum.
The UN Mine Action Service reported on May 4 that explosive remnants have killed 25 people and injured 52 others this year alone, despite teams successfully clearing 18,000 explosive devices and purifying 2.8 million square meters of land since the outbreak of hostilities.