Civilian Deaths Rise as Cheap Drones Appear in Africa’s Untamed Skies

A study reveals that almost 1,000 civilians were killed in at least 50 drone strikes in Africa between November 2021 and November 2024.

A Bayraktar TB2 drone flies at a military airbase in the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on Dec. 16, 2019. Birol Bebek / AFP via Getty Images

JOHANNESBURG—Death was raining from the sky on the fighters from the M23 rebel group who were dug in on a hillside near the region of north Kivu in eastern Congo on a hazy November day in 2023.

Their commander couldn’t work out why, suddenly, the missiles were so unerringly accurate. In the past, many had landed short or overshot the trenches sheltering his men.