CAIRO — Drone strikes killed more than 1,000 civilians in war-torn Sudan in the first five months of 2026, a senior United Nations official said Monday.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said his office has documented a “sharp increase” in drone attacks in the Sudan war.

He said his office registered the killing of over 1,000 civilians between January and May this year.

“In Sudan, the horrific conflict has expanded and escalated, marked by a sharp increase in the use of drone warfare,” Türk told the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Sudan’s war broke out on April 15, 2023, when a power struggle between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the sprawling northeastern African country.

The war killed at least 59,000 people over the course of three years, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, known as ACLED. The U.S.-based war tracking group, however, said the actual toll was almost certainly higher given difficulties in reporting.

The conflict has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with about 34 million people — almost two out of every three Sudanese — needing assistance, according to the U.N.

The fighting has wrecked urban areas and has been marked by atrocities, including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings, that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the United Nations and international rights groups.

“Rape and sexual violence are rampant,” Türk said.