African armies turn to drones with devastating civilian impact

PARIS: The Easter period usually offers a rare respite in Gedeb, in Ethiopia’s deeply troubled north, but on April 17 death rained from the skies in this sleepy town caught up in a war between rebels and the army.

On this important holiday for Ethiopian Orthodox and Protestant Christians, many families had gathered in the morning to repair the local primary school.
But out of the blue, shortly before 11:00 a.m. (1400 GMT), “a drone fired on the crowd and pulverized many people right in front of my eyes,” a resident said.
Ethiopia and many other African nations are increasingly turning to drones as a low-cost means of waging war, often with mixed military results but devastating consequences for civilian populations.
Last year, Ethiopia carried out a total of 54 drone strikes, compared to 62 attacks in Mali, 82 in Burkina Faso and 266 in Sudan, according to data collected by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a US-based monitor.
According residents, the strike killed “at least” 50 people, others said more than 100 — a figure corroborated by several local media outlets.
It is one of the deadliest in a series of drone attacks since the conflict began in August 2023, pitting the Ethiopian army against the Fano, the traditional “self-defense” militias of the Amhara ethnic group.
A shoe seller at the scene, whose nephew was killed instantly, also blamed an armed drone that continued to “hover in the air” some 20 minutes after the strike.
“The sight was horrific: there were heads, torsos and limbs flying everywhere and seriously injured people screaming in pain,” he recalled.
Ethiopian authorities have not released any information about this attack in Amhara, where the security situation makes some areas very difficult to access and communications are subject to significant restrictions.
The Ethiopian army’s use of drones, which began during the bloody Tigray War (2020-2022), has since spread to the Amhara and Oromia regions amid multiple insurgencies.
In the Amhara region alone, now the hardest-hit, at least 669 people have been killed in more than 70 drone strikes since 2023, according to ACLED.

Remotely piloted aircraft used for reconnaissance and strikes — low-cost technologies now ubiquitous in current conflicts and particularly in Ukraine — are generating massive interest in Africa.
Some 30 African governments have acquired drones, according to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies “Military Balance” and the Center for a New American Security’s Drone Proliferation Dataset.
For decades, wars in Africa had been fought on land, conducted primarily by light and mobile infantry units.
“Drones offer sub-Saharan African militaries more affordable and flexible access to air power, which has been out of reach until now due to its cost and operational complexity,” said Djenabou Cisse, a west African security specialist at the Foundation for Strategic Research.
Countries like China, Turkiye and Iran have the advantage of selling drones “without attaching any political conditionality related to respect for human rights,” she added.
Among African military commands, the most popular is undoubtedly the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone, which, along with its big brother, the Akinci, has dethroned the Chinese Wing Loong in recent years.
The TB2 made a notable appearance in 2019 in Libya, the first African theater of drone warfare, between the Government of National Accord and its eastern rival, the Libyan National Army.
The following year, its deployment in the Karabakh region during the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and then in Ukraine starting in 2022, boosted its popularity.
Orders soared and waiting lists grew. While contract details are kept secret, experts estimate that a “system” of three drones costs nearly $6 million — significantly less than the several tens of millions for a fighter jet or combat helicopter.
This offsets its rather average performance, with a range limited to 150 km.
The TB2 is produced by private company Baykar. 
After severing ties with former colonial ruler France, the military regimes of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have turned to Turkish drones to attack rivals.
In December last year, the Malian army eliminated a leader and several members of the Azawad Liberation Front, a pro-independence coalition, in a drone attack.
In November 2023, drones played a decisive role in the recapture of the northern Malian city of Kidal from predominantly Tuareg rebels.
In Chad, four Turkish drones have replaced French fighter jets at the forward bases they occupied until N’Djamena ended its military cooperation agreements with France at the end of 2024.
The latter had repeatedly provided air support to help the Chadian government halt the advance of rebels threatening the capital.
The capital N’Djamena is equipped with only five Russian Sukhoi aircraft and as many aging Mi-24 helicopters.
Contrary to Franco-Chadian relations, “there is no military cooperation agreement (between N’Djamena and Ankara) but a trade agreement that allows us to acquire military equipment,” a Chadian officer said.