"As night fell over southern Colombia, and a group of children began their weekly Tuesday football match, a drone appeared overhead. The children looked up, and the drone dropped a grenade, its blast killing a 10-year-old boy and injuring 12 more civilians. The child's death, in southern Cauca in 2024, marked the first known time a person in the country had been killed in a weaponised drone attack. He would not be the last."
"In February 2025, also in Cauca, a drone dropped an explosive near a temporary Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital, injuring several health workers. That August in Antioquia, an attack brought down a police helicopter, killing at least eight officers. In October, the house of the mayor of Calamar was hit. In December, a strike on a military base killed seven soldiers and injured 30 more. In February 2026, in the mining town of Segovia, a drone dropped a mortar shell on a house, killing a mother and her two sons inside."
"Drone strikes by armed groups have surged across Colombia since 2023, opening a dangerous new front in the country's decades-long conflict. Hospitals, schools, police stations, electricity grids and homes have all been struck, and injuries now number in the hundreds. Only one such attack was recorded in 2023, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), a leading monitoring organisation. But that figure jumped to 38 in 2024 and 149 in 2025."
"Colombia's ministry of defence reported an even steeper rise, recording no attacks in 2023, 61 in 2024 and 333 in 2025. Colombia's conflict has ravaged villages, towns and cities for more than six decades. Fought between guerrillas, paramilitary groups, drug tra"
A grenade dropped from a drone killed a 10-year-old boy and injured 12 civilians in southern Cauca in 2024, marking the first known drone-related death in Colombia. Additional drone attacks followed, including an explosive dropped near a temporary Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in Cauca in February 2025, a drone attack that brought down a police helicopter in Antioquia in August, and strikes on the mayor’s house in Calamar in October. A drone strike on a military base in December killed seven soldiers and injured 30 more. In February 2026, a drone dropped a mortar shell on a house in Segovia, killing a mother and her two sons. Drone attacks have expanded into critical infrastructure and civilian areas, with injury counts reaching the hundreds. Recorded incidents rose sharply from 2023 to 2025, according to ACLED and Colombia’s ministry of defence.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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