By Nimi Princewill, CNN
(CNN) — “You cannot hide from a drone strike,” says Elsadig. For the 27-year-old, that is the terrifying reality of life in Sudan’s besieged city of El-Obeid, where even the simplest routines carry the threat of sudden death.
For much of Sudan’s civil war, which began more than three years ago, civilians feared the fighting on the ground. In El-Obeid, a strategic trade and aid hub that is home to more than half a million people, many now fear what comes from the sky.
In late June, Elsadig was sitting at a water truck station when a drone strike hit the area, severing his left leg.
Nearby, Ahmado, a 42-year-old sewage truck driver, was at work when the same attack struck a group of water trucks. His 9-year-old son, who had come to meet him after school, was killed, along with two of his colleagues.
“My day had started like any other day. There were drones flying over our heads, but I never imagined that my child or I would become a target,” Ahmado told CNN.
His family searched for hours before finding the boy’s body inside the burned-out truck after the fire had died down.
CNN is identifying Elsadig and Ahmado by their first names because they fear for their safety.
“When we hear that there is a drone in the air, we try to take cover under a concrete building,” Elsadig told CNN. “But it comes suddenly — we do not know when or where (it will strike).”
The attack on El-Obeid, a key battleground in the fight between Sudan’s two rival military forces, underscores how drones are reshaping a war that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced more than 14 million and triggered what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The war erupted in April 2023 after former allies Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), fell out in a power struggle. Having seized power together after overthrowing the civilian-led government in a 2021 coup, they became rivals in a battle for control of Sudan.
Now, as foreign-made drones pour into Sudan, the United Nations warns the conflict is “on the cusp of entering yet another new, even deadlier phase.” During the first four months of 2026 alone, drone strikes killed at least 880 civilians and accounted for more than 80% of civilian deaths recorded by the UN.
The war’s new weapon
What began as a ground war has evolved into a battle increasingly fought from the air.
Backed by foreign suppliers, both the SAF and RSF have expanded their drone fleets, from modified commercial drones to advanced military systems.
According to Africa Defense Forum (ADF), a military and security magazine published by the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), both sides have shifted “their tactics to airborne weapons and away from ground forces, which have largely reached a stalemate.”
ADF reported that drones supplied by Turkey — including Bayraktar TB2s, which can fly for long periods, carry explosives and are relatively low-cost — helped the SAF push the RSF out of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, last year.
Turkey has said it supports Sudan’s sovereignty and peace efforts, with President Re