The use of drones by several African countries in their fight against armed groups is causing significant harm to civilians, according to a new report.
More than 943 civilians have been killed in at least 50 incidents across six African countries from November 2021 to November 2024, according to the report by Drone Wars UK.
The report, titled Death on Delivery, reveals that strikes regularly fail to distinguish between civilians and combatants in their operations. Experts told Al Jazeera that the death toll is likely only the tip of the iceberg because many countries run secretive drone campaigns.
As drones rapidly become the weapon of choice for governments across the continent, what are the consequences for civilians in conflict zones? Is it time for the world to regulate the sale of drones?
What explains the surge in drone acquisitions by African nations?
The report highlights how the number of African nations acquiring armed drones, specifically Medium Altitude, Long Endurance (MALE) drones, has increased dramatically in recent years.
Since 2022, at least 10 African countries have obtained these weapons with governments justifying their purchases as a means to combat rebellions and security threats.
However, the reality on the ground has often been different with many strikes leading to mass civilian casualties, raising concerns about human rights violations.
Cora Morris, the report’s author, said drones have been marketed as an “efficient” and modern way to conduct warfare with minimal risk to military personnel.
But in reality, that’s not always true as civilian casualties have mounted.
Morris said drones “significantly lower the threshold for the use of force, making it much easier for armies to deploy munitions without risk to their own forces”.
“The result of this has been a grave civilian toll,” she told Al Jazeera.
The proliferation of drones has also been fuelled by geopolitical shifts as African governments seek greater military self-reliance and turn to new suppliers willing to sell without stringent conditions.
Michael Spagat, head of the department of economics at Royal Holloway University of London, sees the trend as primarily driven by economics.
“Buying drones has become a cheap way for states to acquire significant firepower. Drones have the additional advantage that attackers don’t have to worry about pilots getting killed,” Spagat told Al Jazeera. “You don’t have to invest in training people you might lose.”
He also said this trend is likely just at its beginning.
“Some countries may still be getting up to speed on the use of their drones, and at some point, we’ll start hearing about nonstate groups using potent drones,” he warned.
“These are still fairly advanced technologies, but I doubt it will stay like this forever,” he added.
While the report primarily examines the consequences of the use of drones in Africa, it also touches on the key suppliers fuelling this surge.
Turkiye, China and Iran have emerged as the dominant exporters, the report found, and supply a range of drone systems to African nations.
Morris said the role of actors like Turkiye and China, which have been willing to supply drones “relatively cheaply with little concern for how they are to be used”, means that these weapons have proliferated rapidly in the past few years, particularly to states fighting armed groups.
Which countries were investigated?
The report identifies six key nations where the use of drones has had a particularly deadly impact:
Sudan
Drones have been used extensively in Sudan’s ongoing civil war with reports of strikes hitting civilian infrastructure, including markets and residential areas. Both warring sides – Sudan’s military and its Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group – have used drones.
Somalia
The country has long been a battleground for drone warfare, primarily driven by operations targeting al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabab. However, civilian deaths have been alarmingly frequent, raising concerns over the precision and intelligence behind these strikes. The United States military’s Africa Command has conducted hundreds of air strikes in Somalia that it said targeted al-Shabab fighters but also ended up killing civilians in so-called collateral damage.
Nigeria
The Nigerian government has employed drones in its fight against Boko Haram and other armed groups. Yet there have been multiple instances of strikes on civilians, including in December 2023 when a drone attack hit a group of people observing a Muslim celebration in Tudun Biri in Kaduna State.
Burkina Faso
Conflict in Burkina Faso began to intensify around 2015 as armed group activity spilled over from neighbouring Mali. It is part of a wider regional crisis in the Sahel.
Mali
Both Mali and Burkina Faso have ramped up their use of drones against armed groups. But these strikes have repeatedly resulted in civilian casualties.
Ethiopia
The Ethiopian government has increasingly relied on drones in its fight against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Multiple strikes on refugee camps and marketplaces have led to widespread condemnation. Human rights organisations and the United Nations have decried the lack of accountability.
What have been some of the deadliest strikes?
The impact has been devastating with several strikes leading to significant losses of civilian lives. Among the most tragic incidents documented in the report are:
- Nigeria, December 2023: The drone strike in Tudun Biri village meant to target fighters from an armed group instead hit a crowd of Muslims observing the holiday celebrating the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, killing 85 people. A government statement said the civilian toll was the result of an incorrect analysis.
- Ethiopia, 2022-2023: An attack in October 2022 on residents in Oromia’s Ofu Bekke village killed at least 86 people. The report said government forces had intensified drone attacks after a growing number of Oromo Liberation Army fighters were reported in the area. It added that in the weeks that followed the initial attack, at least a dozen further drone strikes were carried out on the Oromia region with casualties reported in at least 10 of these strikes.
- Somalia, March 2024: Two drone strikes that hit southern Somalia’s Jaffey Farm and nearby Bagdad village killed at least 23 people in an incident that drew a widespread outcry and calls for accountability. Families of the victims described the incident as a massacre while a statement by Somalia’s government claimed all who were killed were “terrorists”, refusing to acknowledge harm done to civilians, according to the report.
- Burkina Faso, August 2023: A drone strike by the Burkinabe military hit a market in Bouro village, killing at least 28 people. The incident is just one that exposes “erratic bombings of innocent communities which sow only further destruction and insecurity”, the report said.
- Sudan, September 2023: A drone attack on the Goro market in Khartoum killed at least 46 people. Reports and witness statements suggested the attack was carried out by drones or military aircraft believed to be affiliated with Sudan’s military.
Morris said there is “an obvious unwillingness to properly investigate claims of civilian casualties”, adding that “the mounting scale of civilian harm worldwide betrays a wholesale failure to take seriously the loss of civilian life.
“This is altogether more brazen where the use of drones is concerned with a concerning normalisation of civilian death accompanying their proliferation,” she said.
Does the sale of drones require better oversight and regulation?
The report emphasises the urgent need for greater oversight and regulation of drone use amid a rapid expansion of drone warfare worldwide.
In the past 10 years, the number of countries operating drones has gone up from four to 48, according to the report.
It said three main international arms control agreements currently apply to the export of armed drones but they all have “significant weaknesses”.
In its recommendations, the report’s author urged the international community to move rapidly towards establishing a new international control regime focused on the prevention of harm arising from the proliferation of armed uncrewed systems.
Morris and Spagat agreed that drone warfare is only going to expand.
“I do think that the use of drones is going to grow quite substantially and possibly proliferate to nonstate groups,” Spagat said.
