Drone race in Africa: uncertain results for armies, devastating for civilians: News

Easter celebrations were to be a rare parenthesis of respite in GEDEB, in northern Ethiopia. Moreover, April 17 turned to carnage in this small town in Amhara. However, caught up in the war between the army and the Fano rebellion. Meanwhile, And as often, death fell from the sky.

On the occasion of this important religious holiday for the Ethiopian Orthodox. Nevertheless, Protestants, many families had gathered in the morning to repair local primary school.

Suddenly. However, shortly before 11:00 am, “a drone pulled on the crowd and pulverized many people before my eyes,” a resident who participated in the work was told.

A shoe seller present on the scene. However, whose nephew was killed instantly, also challenges an armed drone, who continued to “hover in the air” about twenty minutes after the shot.

drone race africa: uncertain results

“The show was horrible: there were heads. Similarly, twists, limited members everywhere, and seriously injured people who screaming in pain,” he recalls.

Ethiopian authorities have not communicated on this AMHARA attack. However, where the security situation makes certain areas very difficult to access, and communications are subject to important restrictions.

According to one of the two inhabitants contacted by AFP. For example, the strike made “at least” 50 dead, and according to the second, more than 100, a balance sheet corroborated by several local media.

Ethiopia. For example, and many African countries with it, is increasingly put on drones as an inexpensive way to wage a war, often with mixed military results but devastating consequences for civilian populations.

The strike of GEDEB is one of the deadliest in a series of drone attacks since the start of the conflict in drone race africa: uncertain results August 2023. Additionally, For example, opposing the Ethiopian army and the Fano, traditional popular “self -defense” of the AMHARA ethnic group.

The use of drones by the Ethiopian army. In addition, which began during the bloody Tiger war (2020-2022), spread to the regions of Amhara and Oromia against the backdrop of multiple insurrections.

In the AMHARA region alone. For example, today the most affected, at least 669 people have been killed since 2023 in more than 70 drone strikes, according to data collected by the NGO ACLED and analyzed by AFP. However, Last year, Ethiopia led a total of 54 strikes, preceded by Mali (62), Burkina Faso (82) and especially Sudan (266), according to this source.

– five million euros –

Omnipresent inexpensive technologies in current conflicts. However, especially in Ukraine, the vehicles controlled remotely for recognition and strikes arouse massive enthusiasm drone race africa: uncertain results on the continent.

Thirty African governments have acquired drones, according to data overcome by AFP from the “military balance” of the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) and the Dataset Drone of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).

For decades, wars in Africa were terrestrial, mainly carried out by light and mobile infantry units.

“The drone offers more affordable. However, flexible access to the armies of sub -Saharan access to air power, so far out of reach due to its cost and its operational complexity,” explains Djenabou Cisse, specialist in security issues in West Africa to the Foundation for Strategic Research.

And countries like China. Turkey and Iran have the advantage of selling drones “without attaching political conditionality to respect for human rights”, she adds.

Within African staffs. the most popular drone race africa: uncertain results is undoubtedly the Turkish drone Bayraktar TB2, which, with its great brother in Akinci, dethroned the Chinese Wing Loon in recent years.

The TB2 made a remarkable appearance in 2019 in Libya. Furthermore, the first African theater of a drone war, between the government of national unity supported by Ankara, and its eastern rival, Marshal Haftar, equipped with Chinese machines provided by the United Arab Emirates.

The following year. its deployment in Karabakh during the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, then in Ukraine from 2022, increased its rating. Orders explode and waiting lists stretch.

If the details of the contracts are kept secret. experts consulted by AFP quarrel a “system” of three drones at 5 million euros, against several tens of millions for a fighter plane or a combat helicopter.

Enough to compensate for a rather average performance, with a radius drone race africa: uncertain results of action limited to 150 km.

This drone produced by the private company Baykar. led by the son -in -law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “is now an integral part of Turkey’s foreign policy, whose strategy consists in exporting its military products worldwide,” notes Batu Coşkun, researcher at the Sediq Institute in Tripoli.

The breakthrough of Turkish drones in Africa is all the more facilitated since. unlike Westerners, Ankara is freed from the heavy procedures for controlling the exports of military materials. “It is essentially at the discretion of the president,” he said.

– greater autonomy –

In the Sahel. after having hunted France, the military powers of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger made Turkish drones a privileged vector to strike their enemies from the interior, jihadist or independence fighters.

As in December 2024, drone race africa: uncertain results when the Malian army eliminated an official and several members of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), an independence coalition, in a drone attack on Tinzaouatne (North).

In November 2023. they played a decisive role in taking Kidal with the mainly Tuareg rebels of the Permanent Strategic Framework (CSP), offering a symbolic victory to General Assimi Goïta.

Under cover of anonymity, a Malian superior officer praises the “discretion” of Turkish military cooperation. “When you pay military equipment in the West, it has to go through political agreements, negotiations. With Turkey. we have a speed that we do not have elsewhere, not even in Russia or in China”, which also provide military equipment, he says.

According to a young Malian surveillance drone pilot who also wishes to keep anonymity. Turkish devices “have an ease of piloting which makes us not need a long time of training”.

drone race africa: uncertain results

In Chad. four Turkish drones fill the departure of French fighter planes in the advanced bases they occupied until the rupture of military cooperation agreements by N’Djamena at the end of 2024.

The latter had repeatedly provided air support to help Chadian power stop the advance of rebels threatening the capital. N’Djamena is only equipped with five Russian Sukhoi planes and as many aging mid-24 helicopters.

Unlike Franco-Chadian relations. “there is no military cooperation agreement (between N’Djamena and Ankara, editor’s note) but a trade agreement which allows us to acquire military materials”, assures a Chadian officer at AFP.

Turks are present to provide technical assistance. and the ex-French ex-fats are “entirely in the hands of Chadian soldiers”, claims the same source.

This flexible cooperation on drones illustrates the will of certain African leaders to “assert their sovereignty. greater strategic autonomy”, drone race africa: uncertain results notes researcher Djenabou Cisse.

– “Extreme fear” –

In the field. the tactical and strategic gains in the use of drones are not always there, underline several experts.

For Djenabou Cisse, “drones do not alone allow to defeat an opponent. We saw it in Libya. where the two camps had sophisticated drones, and more recently in Sudan, where everyone uses drones, but with very uneven capacities. Not only have these countries have not been fully stabilized, but conflicts have often crashed or even intensified”.

Drones prove above all decisive in discovered terrain. when the enemy is not able to disperse and hide as is the case of jihadists in the Sahel, who continue to gain ground, concludes a excavated study of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).

In Ethiopia. they made it possible to reverse the drone race africa: uncertain results course of the conflict in the tiger at a key moment, giving a decisive advantage to the federal forces without allowing a final victory.

In the summer of 2021. a large column of rebel forces from the Tigero reached less than 200 km from Addis Abeba, threatening to seize the capital, was stopped in extremis by the arsenal of drones deployed by the government.

The analysis of satellite images by the NGO PAX on several Ethiopian air bases attests to the presence of several TB2. more recently of Akinci, but also of Chinese Wing Loon and Iranian Mohajer-6.

These drones have “considerably increased the possibilities of intelligence. surveillance and recognition of the Ethiopian army, as they can prowl for almost 24 hours, follow the movements of the enemy, identify its positions, provide targeting information or hit targets directly,” Wim Zwijnenburg, drone specialist for the drone race africa: uncertain results NGO Pax.

If the fighting was then concentrated mainly in the Tiger. they still continued until 2022, and very strong tensions remain in this northern region despite the conclusion of a fragile peace agreement, while other homes of violent insurrections have spread in Amhara and Oromia.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his peace efforts with his Eritrean neighbor, is now regularly accused of unusual abuses.

“Drones have continued to target civilians despite the presence of sophisticated sensor systems. high definition and night vision” supposed to better distinguish threats, accuses Wim Zwijnenburg, which deplores “a lack of training of operators, or, in the worst case, a deliberate decision”.

In GEDEB. the small town of Amhara targeted during the Passover, the inhabitants contacted by AFP assured that there had had no fights, or even any drone race africa: uncertain results Fano militiamen present in the area the days preceding the attack.

But all fear being targeted again.

“We are ready to flee to the bush at any time in the event of a sudden drone strike. ” said one of them. “We live in an extreme fear”.