GENEVA: At least 880 civilians were killed in drone strikes in Sudan between January and April this year, the UN said Monday, warning such strikes were pushing the conflict toward a “new, even deadlier phase.”

The United Nations rights office said in a statement that its Sudan team had determined that “drone strikes accounted for at least 880 civilian deaths — more than 80 percent of all conflict-related civilian deaths — between January and April this year,” with rights chief Volker Turk stressing that “armed drones have now become by far and away the leading cause of civilian deaths.”

AFP