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Drones and drought are "closing in" on Sudan, the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, said on Tuesday, describing unprecedented attacks on the country's infrastructure including by drones travelling up to 1,500 kilometres before hitting their target.
"It is an assault unlike anything Sudan has seen before. In the last week of October, not a single day passed without a drone strike on a power station in Sudan. Up to 15 were hit in the month of October,” said agency spokesperson James Elder.
Story: Sudan drones and drought – UNICEF
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
Duration: 3’12”
DATELINE: 10 November 2026 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND & VARIOUS BROLL FROM Al Obeid, North Kordofan State, Sudan, 3-4 NOVEMBER 2026. PLEASE CREDIT UNICEF
Speaker:
- James Elder, spokesperson, UNICEF
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide shot, UN flag alley, UN Geneva.
- Wide, podium speakers in Press Room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – James Elder, spokesperson, UNICEF: “Drones and drought are closing in on Sudan’s children. It is an assault unlike anything Sudan has seen before. In the last week of October, not a single day passed without a drone strike on a power station in Sudan. Up to 15 were hit in the month of October.”
- Wide, podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – James Elder, spokesperson, UNICEF: “Buri is a teenager. An explosive took both his hands. He lives in a tent. He told me, ‘I must accept this.’ He spends the mornings learning online and the afternoons picking grass for animals with stumps for hands. His friends help him, that’s Sudan. It’s relentless. It’s crushing.”
- Cutaway.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – James Elder, spokesperson, UNICEF: “When a power station is struck, water pumps stop, water treatment stops. Families are forced into expensive and unsafe alternatives. Disease spreads.”
- Wide, journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – James Elder, spokesperson, UNICEF: “This year in Sudan, two in three child casualties were killed by armed drones. They are bringing war to places that were once safe. People in Sudan talk about three things. They talk about safety, education and water. Drones are taking all three.”
- Wide, journalists, participants, technical booths.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – James Elder, spokesperson, UNICEF: “Several years ago, there was a use of suicide drones, which was terrifying to see that in Sudan. Now in the last year, we see long-range drones and increasing accuracy of those drones. You’ve seen drones, you know, going 1,500 kilometres. So, it would be impossible for many people, certainly for a humanitarian organization to say from whom, but the 15 strikes – at least 15 strikes in October – all hit Sudanese power stations. One would struggle to think if it was in the interest of [the Sudanese Armed Forces] SAF, of Government, to do that.”
- Wide, Press Room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – James Elder, spokesperson, UNICEF: “With so many crises happening at once, everything, everything is at breaking point. UNICEF’s response in Sudan is just one-third funded. Now people in Sudan are showing remarkable strength, but resilience cannot run on goodwill alone.”
- Medium, journalist.
- Wide, TV journalists, cameras.
- Medium, journalist.
- Wide, many displaced people outside tent, El Obeid; North Kordofan state, Sudan. Please credit UNICEF.
- Wide, tent clinic with mother and her child who has an intravenous drip, El Obeid; North Kordofan state, Sudan. Please credit UNICEF.
- Close, Malnutrition screening of a baby, El Obeid; North Kordofan state, Sudan. Please credit UNICEF.
- Medium, baby receiving vaccine, El Obeid; North Kordofan state, Sudan. Please credit UNICEF.
- Medium, teenager Buri who lost both hands in the war, El Obeid; North Kordofan state, Sudan. Please credit UNICEF.
- Medium, teenager Buri and another child scarred by the war at a UNICEF-supported safe space, El Obeid; North Kordofan state, Sudan. Please credit UNICEF.
- Wide, displaced people queuing for water next to a line of jerrycans, El Obeid; North Kordofan state, Sudan. Please credit UNICEF.
- Close, a water pipe spouting water, El Obeid; North Kordofan state, Sudan. Please credit UNICEF.
- Wide, children walking fast with a full jerrycan of water together, El Obeid; North Kordofan state, Sudan. Please credit UNICEF.
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