Sudanese Civil War Escalates as Drone Strikes Deepen Civilian Toll and Regional Risks
De burgeroorlog in Soedan is de voorbije weken nog gewelddadiger geworden dan die al was. Vooral de toenemende aanvallen met drones en de wederzijdse beschietingen tussen de milities van de Rapid Support Forces (RSF) en het Soedanese regeringsleger (SAF) hebben enorme verwoestingen en menselijk leed veroorzaakt. Tegelijk beschikt de humanitaire hulpverlening over almaar minder middelen. Experts waarschuwen al lang dat miljoenen mensen in Soedan getroffen zullen worden door hongersnood, geweld en langdurige ontheemding.
Since March 4, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has recorded more than 200 civilian deaths resulting from drone strikes in the Kordofan region and White Nile State.
In West Kordofan, SAF drone strikes have killed at least 152 civilians, hitting densely populated areas including hospitals and markets. The conflict has also spread to White Nile State, where strikes have targeted the state capital, Kosti, as well as electrical facilities—causing widespread power outages—and a student dormitory.
“It is deeply troubling that despite multiple reminders, warnings, and appeals, parties to the conflict in Sudan continue to use increasingly powerful drones to deploy explosive weapons with wide-area impacts in populated areas,” said Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“It will soon be three full years since the senseless conflict in Sudan began, devastating millions of lives and livelihoods. Yet the violence, fueled by these new technologies of war, simply keeps spreading. It is high time it came to an end.”
South Darfur has also been heavily affected, with drone strikes on March 12 and 13 causing extensive damage across multiple neighborhoods.
In West Darfur, strikes on a market in Akidong triggered a massive explosion that impacted the Adre border crossing—a critical lifeline for humanitarian aid deliveries and a key route in preventing widespread starvation.
On March 16, a deadly drone strike hit the Sudan-Chad border in Chad’s Tine region, killing 17 people and injuring several others. Local eyewitnesses told reporters that the strikes hit mourners at a funeral, as well as children playing nearby.
UN Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq said that the attack reflects a growing pattern of violence affecting border communities, raising concerns about broader regional instability between neighboring countries.
“The UN calls once again on all parties to comply with their clearly known obligations under international humanitarian law, which include protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure, and ensuring the rapid, safe, unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to whoever needs it, and wherever it is needed,” Haq said.
Following the attack, Chad bolstered its security forces along the Sudan-Chad border to prepare for defensive operations. On March 19, Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby confirmed in a statement shared to social media that Chad’s army has been ordered to “retaliate, starting from tonight, to any attack coming from Sudan.”
“Despite various firm warnings addressed to the different belligerents in the Sudan conflict and the closure of the border, the town of Tine has again been the target of a drone attack,” said a spokesperson for the Chadian government.
“This latest assault of extreme gravity has caused the death of 17 of our compatriots and left several others injured.”
As violence continues to escalate and spill across borders, its humanitarian consequences within Sudan are becoming increasingly pronounced. Figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) show that approximately 9 million people are currently internally displaced across Sudan, marking one of the largest displacement crises in the world.
On March 17, several people were killed in the Bara locality, northeast of El-Obeid City, the capital of North Kordofan, causing over 150 displacements from Sherim Mima Village in Bara to Um Dam Haj alone.
Displacement has gone down in recent days, with roughly 3.8 million civilians recorded to have begun returning home, particularly to Khartoum and eastern regions.
Despite this, returnees face a host of challenges, including the loss of their livelihoods, infrastructure damage, and a lack of access to basic services. Roughly 55 percent of internally displaced civilians were children under 18 years old.
Additional reports from humanitarian agencies paint a grim picture of the conditions that civilians face. Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), reports that civilians are at great risk of being harmed by explosive remnants on the ground, recording 23 injuries, including four women and seven children, sustaining severe injuries.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that rampant and concurrent outbreaks of cholera, measles, dengue, and Hepatitis E have overwhelmed national health systems, which were already weakened by the vast influx of injured persons.
The World Food Programme (WFP) states that approximately 21.2 million people are currently food insecure across Sudan, with women and children disproportionately affected. The majority of female-headed households are critically food insecure.
According to UNICEF, ‘catastrophic’ malnutrition rates were recorded in Um Baru and Kornoi in North Darfur. Numerous regions are at risk of developing famine-like conditions and face severe shortages of food, clean water, healthcare, and other basic services.
Despite immense access challenges, the UN and its partners have been working on the frontlines to restore access to basic services, managing to install eight 2,000-liter water tanks in displacement shelters and schools.
UNICEF has reached struggling communities with food assistance and vaccination programs, providing 787,000 children with nutrition screenings, 25,100 children with malnutrition treatment, and over 540,000 children with vaccines for Measles and Rubella.
However, these efforts remain severely constrained by chronic underfunding, with the 2026 Humanitarian Response Plan for Sudan being only 16 percent funded, reaching only 454 million dollar of its 2.9 billion dollar goal, which would assist over 20 million crisis-affected civilians across the country.
An additional 1.6 billion dollar is required to reach refugees and host communities in neighboring countries.
Oritro Karim
Dit artikel verscheen op vrijdag 20 maart 2026 op de website van IPS: https://www.ipsnews.net/2026/03/sudanese-civil-war-escalates-as-drone-strikes-deepen-civilian-toll-and-regional-risks/
En op 26 maart 2026 op de website van MO* (in Nederlandse vertaling): https://www.mo.be/nieuws/burgeroorlog-in-soedan-escaleert-drone-aanvallen-nemen-toe
IPS is an international communication institution with a global news agency at its core,raising the voices of the South and civil society on issues of development, globalisation, human rights and the environment.
Lees ook:
– Sudan: Türk appalled by surge in deadly drone attacks on civilians in Kordofan and White Nile (12 maart 2026) https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/03/sudan-turk-appalled-surge-deadly-drone-attacks-civilians-kordofan-and-white
– Sudan: Sharp increase in civilian deaths as a result of growing drone warfare (24 maart 2026) https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2026/03/sudan-sharp-increase-civilian-deaths-result-growing-drone-warfare
– Sudan: Evidence in El-Fasher reveals genocidal campaign, targeting non-Arab communities, UN Fact-Finding Mission says (19 februari 2026) https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/02/sudan-evidence-el-fasher-reveals-genocidal-campaign-targeting-non-arab
– DTM Sudan Displacement and Return Snapshot (3) (19 maart 2026) https://dtm.iom.int/reports/dtm-sudan-displacement-and-return-snapshot-3
– UNICEF Sudan Humanitarian Situation Report No. 39, 31 January 2026 (10 maart 2026) https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/unicef-sudan-humanitarian-situation-report-no-39-31-january-2026
– WFP Sudan: Conflict continues to spread across Sudan, with over two years of war leading to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world https://www.wfp.org/countries/sudan
https://www.wfp.org/emergencies/sudan-emergency
– As Sudan nears three years of war, hunger mounts and women pay the highest price. On International Women’s Day, the World Food Programme champions mothers on the frontlines of food insecurity https://www.wfp.org/stories/sudan-nears-three-years-war-hunger-mounts-and-women-pay-highest-price
– EU says ‘concerns’ raised with UAE over its role in Sudan war https://cimic-npo.org/2026/02/22/70-009/
– Genocide in Sudan, the role of the UAE, and the complicity of the West https://cimic-npo.org/2025/11/24/67-015/
– De oorlog in Soedan waar de dood regeert https://cimic-npo.org/2025/09/27/65-019/
– Mohamed Kordofani’s ‘Goodbye Julia’ brengt dieperliggende oorzaken van oorlog en conflict in Soedan onder de aandacht https://cimic-npo.org/2024/05/27/53-013/
– Sudan: Türk warns of catastrophic surge in violence https://cimic-npo.org/2025/06/24/64-005/
– Resilience in times of war: how WRI members in Sudan are sustaining their work for peace https://cimic-npo.org/2025/04/18/92-003/
– ‘The International Community Must Stop Turning a Blind Eye to the Suffering of Sudanese Women’ https://cimic-npo.org/2024/11/18/the-international-community-must-stop-turning-a-blind-eye-to-the-suffering-of-sudanese-women/
– ‘Barely anyone left’: Sudan’s El-Fasher devastated by fighting https://cimic-npo.org/2024/09/26/55-012/
