Geneva: The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned that the increasing use of armed drones in Sudan's conflict is driving the war into a "new and deadlier phase", after at least 880 civilians were reportedly killed in drone strikes during the first four months of this year.

According to Qatar News Agency, in a statement issued in Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said the absence of urgent international action risked worsening the humanitarian crisis and intensifying violence across the country. He highlighted that the growing deployment of drones had enabled fighting to continue uninterrupted despite the approach of the rainy season, which has historically reduced the scale of ground combat operations in Sudan.

The UN rights office reported that the use of drones has expanded beyond the traditionally conflict-affected regions of Kordofan and Darfur to include Blue Nile, White Nile and the capital, Khartoum. Turk called for stronger measures to prevent weapons supplies from reaching parties involved in the conflict, including advanced drones, warning that markets, healthcare facilities and humanitarian operations were increasingly under threat.

Turk emphasized that armed drones had become "by far the leading cause of civilian deaths" in the conflict. Recent months have seen a sharp rise in drone warfare in Sudan's ongoing conflict, with Kordofan recording the highest number of civilian fatalities during the first quarter of the year.