A drone was hovering in the sky above Zaki Ramzan when he received my call. As a humanitarian worker in Sudan’s southeastern Blue Nile state, he watches helplessly as aid dwindles and civilians are killed by a barrage of drone strikes.
“We have stopped all humanitarian activities, we cannot work, because all offices are closing Drones – Some areas have been relocated. WFP personnel left the area two days ago in anticipation of drone strikes,” he says.
Drones have waged war of Sudan The war is a death trap for a population of more than 46 million as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) battle for territory.
Drone strikes by the Rapid Support Force (RSF) have been stepped up
Burned remains after a drone strike at a market in South Kordofan
Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, an independent global monitor, recorded at least 198 drone strikes by both sides in Sudan in the first two months of 2026. At least 52 of them involved civilian casualties, killing 478 people.
“For us, when we hear a noise – we run and hide ourselves. We run to the river, and sometimes we go to our foxhole. We go to the town and sometimes we go to a place where there are no buildings,” Zaki says.
The region where they operate has been ravaged by armed insurgency and state violence for decades, but this time is different.
A dangerous new depth to war
“This war is different. This time they are using a lot of drones. Before – 20 years or 30 years ago – they didn’t use these drones, it was just a normal clash,” he says.
The drone war has added a dangerous depth to Sudan’s humanitarian crisis, making safe aid delivery and emergency response virtually impossible in some hard-hit areas.
“No food, no medical care, no sanitation,” Zaki says. People scrambling for safety have no choice of sanctuary.
Drones hit Kordofan University. Image: Darfur Network for Human Rights
Lecture halls were damaged in the strike. Image: Darfur Network for Human Rights
:: Have drones changed warfare forever?
A Sky News analysis and mapping of ACLED data found that deadly drone attacks are widespread across Sudan and the number of civilian casualties is rising rapidly.
In a third consecutive day of fresh drone strikes on southern White Nile state, an RSF drone struck a secondary school and shelter, killing at least 17 people – mostly schoolgirls – and injuring 10 others.
A grave site in North Kordofan where victims of a drone strike were laid to rest. Image: Reuters
In just a two-day window in mid-February, more than 60 people were reportedly killed by drones launched by both sides, including at least 15 children killed in a single Sudanese military drone attack on a shelter.
In January, a drone attack on N’djamena market in Dilling County, South Kordofan, killed 13 people, and a month earlier, a triple drone attack by the RSF on a kindergarten and hospital in the same state killed 114 people, including 43 children.
Arrests and Deportations
Walls are closing in on civilians who face increasing violence as borders close. Drone strikes have spread across the eastern border to the west – even hitting territory in neighboring Chad, which hosts nearly a million Sudanese refugees.
Chad recently closed its border with Sudan after several cross-border attacks by RSF. Other neighboring countries are like that South SudanEthiopia and Libya are at risk of their own civil wars and are increasingly unsafe for refugees.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of Sudan is a paramilitary group
Countries are closing their borders due to threats from RSF
EgyptSudan, a major safe haven for refugees, is now deporting them en masse. Millions of people now face arrest, deportation and fear of death as Egyptian authorities unleash a brutal crackdown. The Sudanese embassy in Cairo said 578 Sudanese citizens were deported back to Sudan in December and January.
Affected families told Sky News that their loved ones’ status as asylum seekers with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) would be ignored as they were picked up. Dozens of missing person posts are being shared on Facebook to track down suspects who have been arrested or deported.
People, fleeing the fighting, have set up camp in North Darfur
Thousands of people have been forced to flee North Darfur’s capital, Al Fashir
Refugees live in makeshift tents
“They took us to the prison and we were terrified. I have never been in prison before – in Sudan or elsewhere – and was shocked by the sight of the prison. It felt like we were in a soap opera,” a Sudanese refugee detained by Egyptian authorities told Sky News.
He was a taxi driver in Al Fashir City, Sudan. He eventually fled the regional capital – where the RSF is accused of committing genocide and killing 6,000 people in just three days of captivity – and went to Egypt for safety.
“They split us into four groups, and we were about 110 to a single cell. There was violence from the police and then violence inside the cell from the embedded guards. You were constantly avoiding both.”
Al-Nazir Al Sadiq, an 18-year-old youth, was also held in one of these cells. He was arrested from the neighborhood of Cairo and three friends who were with him at the time were deported. He eventually died in custody.
“He had no disease – he was healthy when they picked him up,” his brother tells us from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.
“The first day my mother visited him he was mentally exhausted and inconsolable. There were three visits and each time he got worse and worse – until he died.”
Despite the dangers, Al-Nazir’s family has returned to Sudan. The Egyptian government did not respond to our request for comment.
Read more from Sky News:
Thousands died in three days
1,000 Days of War in Sudan
UN sees ‘signs of genocide’
There was widespread destruction in Khartoum
The capital has seen some fierce battles
Focused on the UK’s asylum crackdown
Here in the UK, the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood Afghanistan, Myanmar, Cameroon and Sudan implemented emergency bans on study visas to slow asylum claims for students. This means Sudan’s best and brightest minds – at least 210 students – are being prevented from getting scholarships to some of the UK’s best universities.
At least 22 of them intended to study at Oxford University, and 39 of them were accepted into UK government-funded Chevening Scholarships for Emerging Leaders.
On the ban, Ms Mahmood said: “Britain will always offer asylum to people fleeing war and persecution, but our visa system must not be abused. That is why I am taking the unprecedented decision to refuse visas to citizens who wish to take advantage of our generosity. I will restore order and control at our borders.”
The Home Secretary’s clampdown on study visas is affecting Sudan’s best and brightest minds. Image: Reuters
But affected students believe they are dealing with the compounding brutality of Sudan’s war.
‘It’s heartbreaking’
“What’s particularly painful in the current situation is that the data doesn’t justify this kind of blanket decision,” says Ravan, who was barred from enrolling in her dream master’s program in international health at Oxford University after admitting.
“The Home Office has indicated a 300% increase from Sudanese students, from 30 to 120 cases in five years. But when you look at the bigger picture, those 120 cases represent just 0.1% of the total number of asylum claims in the UK.”
He continued: “It’s heartbreaking to see how we are villainizing refugee students because the system is not rigged, they are fleeing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 14 million Sudanese displaced by war.
“There’s definitely a general sense of helplessness.”
This war is becoming a dead end as borders close and drones stalk the skies. Aid workers like Zaki don’t know what to say to people struggling for safety.
“They are confused about where they can go to experience peace – they go to South Sudan, where there is a problem. They go to Ethiopia, where there is a problem,” Zaki says.
