Armed drones, once the preserve of superpowers, are fast becoming Africa’s newest and deadliest weapon of choice, transforming the continent’s wars while blurring the line between the digital and the devastating.
From Ethiopia’s Tigray region to Sudan’s urban battlefields and the Sahel, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are rewriting how battles are fought, often at catastrophic cost to civilians.
Just this week, the Committee to Protect Journalists called on Sudanese authorities to investigate the killing of journalist Alnor Suleiman Alnor, who died from injuries sustained in an October 3 drone strike on his home in the besieged city of El-Fasher.
The strike was reportedly carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
"We are appalled by the killing of journalist Alnor Suleiman Alnor after a drone strike hit his home," said CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah.
According to Drone Wars UK, at least 943 civilians were killed in 50 drone strikes across Africa between November 2021 and November 2024, underscoring the rising toll of this new era of remote warfare.
Cora Morris, the report’s lead author, in an interview with Al Jazeera, painted a gloomy picture of the trail of destruction the proliferation of drones has had on African communities that are trapped in war zones.
“The mounting scale of civilian harm betrays a wholesale failure to take seriously the loss of civilian life,” he said. Morris feared that the technology had become cheap, accessible, and increasingly lethal.
According to the Africa Defense Forum (ADF), Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2, China’s Wing Loong, and Iran’s Mohajer-6 drones now dominate African skies, supplied to governments with few human rights conditions attached.
“In recent years, African militaries have gone on a UAV shopping spree. At $5 million each for a TB-2 and up to $50 million for an Akinci, the costs for cash-strapped militaries add up quickly. Buying drones has become a cheap way for states to acquire significant firepower,” states the ADF.
In Ethiopia, drone strikes have killed at least 669 civilians in the Amhara region since 2023, according to AFP and ACLED data.
Sudan’s warring factions have used the same Turkish and Chinese-made UAVs, the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces, with both accused of hitting mosques and hospitals.
In Burkina Faso, Mali, and Nigeria, drone attacks by governments have also resulted in scores of civilian deaths, often during counterterrorism operations.
Adding to the catastrophe is the financial gain attraction of the African drone market, valued at around US$3.4 billion in 2024.
It is further projected to balloon beyond $9 billion by 2030, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
Presently, Nigeria leads local drone manufacturing through robotics firms like Terra Industries, while Ethiopia and Mozambique are developing their own fleets for both military and surveillance use.
As more nations and non-state actors embrace UAVs, experts warn that Africa is entering an era where war can be waged with the click of a button and where, too often, civilians pay the ultimate price.
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