For millions of families in Sudan, the sky has become a source of relentless terror, bringing a new and devastating phase of war to communities that once believed they were out of reach of the front lines. Combined with a worsening drought, an unprecedented wave of long-range drone strikes is systematically dismantling the country’s basic infrastructure and cutting off vital lifelines, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva just hours after stepping off a flight from the war-torn nation, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder painted a harrowing picture of life on the ground. As the brutal power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drags on, the nature of the fighting has undergone a lethal transformation. Unmanned aerial vehicles—some capable of traveling up to 1,500 kilometers before striking their targets—are now routinely hitting civilian neighborhoods, bustling markets, and public utilities.
“It is an assault unlike anything Sudan has seen before,” Elder said, his voice underscoring the urgency of the crisis. “In the last week of October, not a single day passed without a drone strike on a power station in Sudan. Up to 15 were hit in the month of October.”
Behind these staggering numbers is a profound human tragedy, one borne disproportionately by the nation’s youngest and most vulnerable citizens. According to UNICEF data, two out of every three child casualties recorded in Sudan this year were caused by armed drones. For parents trying to keep their children alive and hopeful amidst the chaos, the strikes are erasing the last vestiges of normal life.
“People in Sudan talk about three things: they talk about safety, education, and water,” Elder noted. “Drones are taking all three.”
Across the country, more than 15 million people have been forced from their homes and are in desperate need of basic shelter. Yet, as aid workers try to reach these displaced families, ongoing strikes on roads, markets, and civilian centers continue to block humanitarian access and deepen the daily misery of non-combatants.
A Terrifying Evolution in Warfare
The shift in how this war is being fought has caught even seasoned humanitarians off guard. Elder explained that while the conflict saw the terrifying introduction of short-range “suicide” drones several years ago, the past 12 months have been defined by the widespread deployment of far more sophisticated, accurate, long-range systems.
While humanitarian agencies like UNICEF do not have the mandate or capacity to definitively determine who is launching these attacks, the sheer scale of the destruction raises troubling questions. Pointing to the “at least 15 strikes” that crippled electrical stations in October alone, Elder questioned the strategic logic of the state destroying its own vital utilities, remarking, “One would struggle to think if it was in the interest of the SAF, of Government, to do that.”
In cities like El Obeid—where UN Human Rights Council investigators report that residents live under the constant, suffocating fear of an unseen strike from above—the physical and psychological toll is immense. During his trip, Elder met Buri, a displaced teenager living in a makeshift tent whose life was forever altered in a split second when an explosive took both of his hands.
Despite the unimaginable trauma, Buri’s quiet determination left a deep impression on the UN official. “He told me, ‘I must accept this,'” Elder recounted. “He spends the mornings learning online and the afternoons picking grass for animals with stumps for hands. His friends help him—that’s Sudan. It’s relentless. It’s crushing.”
A Cascading Humanitarian Crisis
To illustrate the unique peril facing Sudanese civilians, Elder drew a stark comparison between the targeting of Sudan’s energy grid and the war in Ukraine. In Ukraine, teams work around the clock to rapidly repair damaged electrical infrastructure. In Sudan, when a power station is bombed, it stays dark—triggering a devastating domino effect across public health, sanitation, and food production.
“When a power station is struck, water pumps stop, water treatment stops,” Elder explained. “Families are forced into expensive and unsafe alternatives.”
With clean water rapidly disappearing, pockets of cholera have already begun to spread through vulnerable communities. At the same time, continuous blackouts are jeopardizing the cold-chain storage required to keep life-saving vaccines and medicines from spoiling in the intense heat.
The collapse of the electrical grid, compounded by what Elder described as “crippling” fuel shortages, has also brought Sudan’s agricultural sector to its knees. Farmers who rely on diesel-powered generators to run their irrigation pumps can no longer afford the fuel required to keep their crops alive.
“Harvests suffer, prices keep rising, and food slips further and further out of reach: a lethal cycle kicks in,” Elder warned. This agricultural collapse is unfolding alongside grim nutritional projections: an estimated 825,000 children under the age of five are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year—the deadliest form of hunger, which rapidly wastes away young bodies.
Even in the face of these overwhelming obstacles, aid workers continue to push forward. UNICEF and its partners have managed to treat hundreds of thousands of severely malnourished children, deliver essential healthcare to over 2.5 million people, and vaccinate millions against preventable diseases. Recognizing that the power grid may not return anytime soon, teams have also worked to convert damaged water systems to solar power, successfully keeping clean water flowing for nearly eight million people.
However, with multiple overlapping crises unfolding at once, Elder cautioned that the humanitarian response is stretched to its absolute limit. Noting that UNICEF’s emergency appeal for Sudan remains only one-third funded, he issued a blunt plea to the international community not to look away from the suffering.
“Everything, everything is at breaking point,” Elder said. “Resilience cannot run on goodwill alone.”
