UNICEF: 330 Children Killed or Maimed in Sudan in Six Months, Most by Drones

The war in Sudan is killing and maiming children at a rate that aid agencies describe as staggering, and the weapon doing most of the damage is new to this conflict's arsenal: the drone. UNICEF says at least 330 children were killed or injured in the first half of 2026, with 60 percent of the casualties caused by drone attacks.

The figure captures only verified cases — the true toll, in a country where vast areas are cut off from monitoring, is certainly higher. But it documents a grim evolution in the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, both of which have dramatically expanded their use of armed drones, striking cities and towns far from any front line.

The pattern is visible across the country. The UN human rights office documented 15 drone strikes in three weeks on El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, killing at least 45 civilians. The UN's human rights chief has said drone strikes killed more than a thousand Sudanese civilians in the first five months of the year — 'relentless' attacks that turn marketplaces, hospitals and homes into targets.

For Sudan's children, the drones are one layer of a compounding catastrophe. Famine has been confirmed in El Fasher and Kadugli, with child malnutrition rates in screening data reaching as high as 75 percent in the besieged Darfur city. More than 13 million people are displaced inside the country, half of them children, in what remains the world's largest displacement crisis.

UNICEF and its partners have pleaded for an end to attacks on civilians and unimpeded humanitarian access. What they confront instead is a war whose technology is advancing faster than its diplomacy — and whose youngest victims have no say in either.