Escalating Drone Warfare Intensifies Sudan Conflict

Since the outbreak of full-scale hostilities in April 2023, Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have relentlessly expanded their use of unmanned aerial vehicles, transformed the tactical landscape and extended the reach of violence far beyond traditional battlefields. In early May 2025 alone, the conflict entered a new phase of intensity and scale.

Drone Strikes on Port Sudan

On the morning of May 4, 2025, Port Sudan—the principal port city on the country’s Red Sea coast—came under sustained aerial bombardment by RSF combat drones. For the first time, vital infrastructure was directly targeted: fuel depots burned, the main electrical substation was rendered inoperable, the civilian airport runway was cratered, and a naval base sustained serious damage. By severing Khartoum’s lifeline of fuel and power, the RSF aimed to paralyze government logistics, disrupt supply chains bound for frontline units, and project fear into a city that had heretofore remained largely insulated from the conflict.

First Drone Attack on a Prison

Just days later, on May 10, the RSF conducted their first confirmed drone strike on a detention facility, targeting the eastern cellblock of the main prison in Obeid, North Kordofan. At dawn, an unmanned aerial vehicle delivered a precision strike that collapsed walls and ignited stored bedding and fuel, killing at least twenty inmates and wounding fifty more. Many survivors suffered shrapnel and blast injuries. This assault marked a stark escalation: prisons—long seen as off-limits to air campaigns—now lay directly in harm’s way.

Government Counterstrikes’ and Continued RSF Shelling

In retaliation for the Port Sudan raids, the Sudanese Armed Forces launched a precision air strike on Nyala Airport in South Darfur on May 4, destroying a significant portion of the RSF’s locally based drone fleet and killing scores of RSF personnel using the facility as a logistics hub. Yet, the RSF pressed on: on May 8, their artillery pounded an internally displaced persons camp near El-Fasher in North Darfur. That attack killed at least fourteen civilians—grandparents, parents, and children—who had sought shelter from the fighting. Near-daily shelling around the camp had already strained humanitarian access.

Strategic and Humanitarian Consequences

By wielding drones against ports, prisons, airports, and civilian shelters, the RSF has blurred the lines between military and civilian domains. Their likely external suppliers—often identified as Gulf states seeking influence in Sudan’s oil and mineral sectors—have enabled the RSF to hit distant targets with precision while minimizing their own exposure to ground counterattacks. In parallel, the regular army’s ability to neutralize RSF drones at Nyala Airport demonstrates that control of airspace remains a critical, contested asset.

The human toll has been devastating. More than 24,000 lives have been lost since April 2023, and roughly 13 million people have been displaced—nearly 4 million crossing into neighbouring countries. Large swathes of South Kordofan and Darfur now verge on famine as both sides continue to target supply convoys and obstruct humanitarian operations. Port Sudan’s role as a humanitarian hub has been crippled, threatening the delivery of food, water, and medical aid to millions in need.

Toward a New Phase of the Conflict

As drone strikes become commonplace, the conflict in Sudan is entering a technologically driven phase in which mastery of the skies may determine both battlefield outcomes and the scale of civilian suffering. The international community faces urgent questions: How can humanitarian corridors be protected when airspace is no longer the exclusive domain of state actors? What measures will curb the flow of lethal drone technology to non-state forces? And ultimately, what combination of military, diplomatic, and humanitarian efforts can restore protection for Sudan’s civilians and pave the way toward a sustainable peace?