Drones hammer Sudan’s gold and oil zone – the pivotal new front line

Intensified drone attacks on the new front line of Sudan’s civil war have led to mass civilian casualties in recent weeks and are increasingly shaping the course of the conflict. The epicentre of fighting has shifted to the south-central Kordofan region since both sides consolidated their gains in the other main battlefields of this nearly three-year war. The conflict between the Sudanese regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has become one of the deadliest in Africa for civilians and shows no sign of abating despite US-led peace efforts.

The near-daily drone strikes have hit targets including markets, health facilities, aid convoys and residential areas across the Kordofan region, prompting outrage from the UN and humanitarian officials. “The continued attacks by all parties on civilian objects must stop,” the UN human rights chief Volker Türk said last week. “The parties must take urgent measures to protect civilians, including by refraining from the military use of civilian objects.” He was speaking after reports that more than 50 civilians had been killed over two days in separate drone strikes in North and West Kordofan.

Those attacks were blamed on the Sudanese military by local reports and war monitors, but both sides are accused of deadly strikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Greater Kordofan comprises three states and serves as a vital axis linking the western Darfur region, controlled by the RSF, to the capital, Khartoum, in the eastern Nile Valley, now in army hands. The war erupted in April 2023, triggered by a power struggle between the leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitaries.