Foreign support, deadly drone strikes in Sudan war may amount to war crimes, UN says
September 3, 2026 (GENEVA) – Foreign supply networks and military backing have dramatically escalated Sudan’s conflict, enabling both the armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to conduct drone strikes that hit civilians and essential infrastructure in acts that may amount to war crimes, a United Nations inquiry said on Thursday.
The findings, presented by the U.N. Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan to the Human Rights Council, document a decisive shift toward advanced aerial warfare since 2025, driven by an influx of sophisticated foreign-supplied unmanned systems, munitions, and foreign personnel.
The mission warned that external backing is sustaining the hostilities, allowing both sides to carry out increasingly lethal operations that directly hit civilian concentrations and paralyze critical survival systems.
Between January and May 11, 2026, the U.N. Human Rights Office documented more than 1,000 civilian deaths from drone strikes alone, hitting hospitals, schools, places of worship, markets, displacement sites, power grids, and gatherings such as weddings and funerals.
A transnational supply network has been critical to sustaining the RSF, establishing air, land, and sea routes that connect entities and individuals in the United Arab Emirates, Chad, southeastern Libya, and Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, the report said.
The inquiry found evidence linking UAE-based individuals and entities to arrangements funnelling arms and materiel to the paramilitary force.
Equipment recovered or spotted in RSF-held areas matched systems previously exported to the UAE, including Chinese-made NORINCO AH-4 155mm howitzers, FK-2000 air defence systems, radars, armoured vehicles, armed Land Cruisers, munitions, and medical supplies.
The UAE rejected allegations that it provided military, logistical, financial, or political support to the RSF, maintaining neutrality and calling the claims unfounded.
The mission estimated that up to 2,000 Colombian military contractors were recruited to support the RSF, operating and maintaining reconnaissance, strike, and one-way attack drones, as well as artillery and air defence systems.
According to witness testimony, some contractors were flown to the UAE and taken to a military-style facility in Ghayathi for two months of training alongside RSF fighters before deploying to Sudan.
The report noted that on April 28, 2026, the U.N. Security Council Sanctions Committee designated retired Colombian army colonel Alvaro Andres Quijano Becerra, based in Abu Dhabi, and his wife Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero for running recruitment operations.
Colombia cooperated with the mission, reiterating its opposition to mercenarism and highlighting domestic measures to criminalize and halt the practice.
The report identified Bosaso in Puntland, as well as Benghazi, Al-Kufra, and Al-Jufra in southeastern Libya, as key transit hubs and assembly points for foreign fighters and cargo flights operated by Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft before entering Sudan through Chad or Nyala Airport.
In Libya, the logistical corridors received backing from factions loyal to the Libyan National Army, including the Subul Al-Salam battalion, according to the report.
Chad affirmed its neutrality and rejected allegations that its facilities were used to provide military support, though the mission concluded that private networks used remote Chadian border areas for transit. Libya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Sudan did not provide substantive responses to requests for information.
The report documented severe RSF drone attacks, including a series of strikes on Dec. 4, 2025, in Kalogi, South Kordofan, where an initial strike hit a kindergarten, followed by strikes on rescuers and a rural hospital, killing 114 people, including about 60 children.
Repeated attacks also inflicted severe, differentiated harm on women and children, particularly through the collapse of maternal healthcare. Health workers reported surges in miscarriages, stillbirths, and pregnancy complications due to strikes on power grids and facilities such as El Obeid’s maternity hospital.
The mission found the Sudanese Armed Forces also substantially expanded their drone fleet through foreign-supplied systems since late 2023.
Technical analysis of wreckage from army-attributed strikes in Darfur and Kordofan identified components consistent with Turkish-manufactured Bayraktar Akinci drones, alongside Chinese-origin Yiha III loitering munitions used in Blue Nile and West Kordofan.
Among documented military strikes was a double attack on March 20, 2026, against Ed Daein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, which hit the emergency ward and blood bank, killing 70 people and wounding 146.
The mission urged all states to enforce the Darfur arms embargo and called on the U.N. Security Council to extend the embargo nationwide.
It also called for establishing a specialized independent judicial court for Sudan to operate in tandem with the International Criminal Court, while holding foreign suppliers, brokers, and logistics networks legally accountable.