Drones reshape war in Colombia as deaths and injuries mount

Civilians left increasingly exposed as a dangerous new front opens up in the country’s decades-old conflict

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.