Sudan's civil war has entered a grim new phase, with escalating drone attacks killing hundreds of civilians and driving millions more from their homes, as the country's catastrophic humanitarian crisis draws comparatively little international attention. According to United Nations figures, nearly 700 civilians have been killed in drone strikes since January 2026 alone, with children accounting for a disproportionate share of the deaths. The attacks have struck markets, hospitals, and residential areas across the country.

The human cost is visible in places like the Nuba Mountains, a rugged highland region in South Kordofan state — roughly the size of Austria — that sits near the border with South Sudan and is home to more than 50 ethnic groups. Health worker Hassan Koko, 50, was finishing a training course and drinking tea when a drone struck, killing several of his colleagues and leaving him with metal shrapnel still embedded in his legs three months later. "The drone attacked once and then came back, hitting those who were already wounded," he said. He survived, but describes a life now largely confined to his home. His story reflects a broader reality: the Nuba Mountains, long controlled by the armed movement SPLM-N — which emerged from the same liberation struggle that led to South Sudan's independence in 2011 — have become one of the war's most active fronts, hosting both fighters and nearly three million internally displaced people.

The war is being fought between Sudan's regular army, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful militia whose leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — widely known as Hemedti — this week warned his forces were prepared to fight for decades. "If they want it to go on for 40 years, it will continue until they are uprooted," he told fighters at an undisclosed location. The RSF, largely ousted from the capital Khartoum by the army last year, still maintains a presence on the city's outskirts, and a series of recent drone strikes has shattered the relative calm that had returned to the capital. Sudan's army-aligned government has accused Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates of conducting drone strikes from Ethiopian territory; both countries deny the allegations.

The war, now in its fourth year, has killed more than 150,000 people and displaced approximately 14 million — making it the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis, according to the UN. A makeshift camp called Umm Dulo in the Nuba Mountains shelters more than 34,000 people in lean-to shelters built from branches and plastic sheeting. Fatma Eisa Kuku, 76, fled Kadugli — the South Kordofan state capital — after months of gunfire kept her awake each night, only to arrive at the camp carrying trauma from witnessing family members being abducted.

Relief efforts are increasingly strained. Funding gaps left by the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) last year have made it harder to provide food, water, and shelter. Most international NGOs have suspended or drastically reduced operations in South Kordofan, and the UN has no presence in Kadugli. Diplomatic efforts to negotiate a ceasefire — led by the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt — have repeatedly failed, with the army insisting it will not stop fighting until the RSF disarms. With both sides digging in, analysts and aid workers warn that the world's most neglected crisis is becoming harder, and deadlier, to ignore.