Sudan groups urge UN to expand arms embargo amid drone strikes

Sudanese civil society groups have called on the United Nations (UN) Security Council to extend its arms embargo beyond Darfur to cover the entire country, citing widespread civilian casualties from drone warfare.

The Civil Democratic Alliance of the Revolutionary Forces (Somoud) and Emergency Lawyers made the appeal on Friday as international rights groups stepped up pressure on foreign actors to halt arms supplies to Sudan's warring parties.

Somoud said findings, presented to the UN Human Rights Council, showed that both the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces had used drones against hospitals, displacement camps, schools and markets.

The group said a UN fact-finding mission had documented more than 1,000 civilian deaths from drone strikes in the first five months of 2026. 

Among the incidents cited was a strike on a nursery and hospital in South Kordofan that killed 114 people, including about 60 children. Another attack on a teaching hospital in Ed Daein killed at least 70 people, Somoud said.

Repeated drone strikes on El Obeid, Kadugli and Dilling have also disrupted water, electricity and medical services, the group said.

Somoud called for investigations into cross-border weapons networks and sanctions against entities involved in arms transfers, saying external military support was prolonging the conflict and deepening Sudan's humanitarian crisis.

Emergency Lawyers separately called for the Human Rights Council to renew the fact-finding mission's mandate and strengthen the UN Panel of Experts to monitor illicit arms trafficking.

Sudan's war, which began in April 2023, has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions, creating one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

(With input from wires)