Drones reshape war in Colombia as deaths and injuries mount

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 Médecins Sans Frontières 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. Earlier this month, a drone packed with explosives was found near Bogotá’s international airport and an adjacent military base. A photograph from Colombian police that officers said showed an explosives-laden drone that was found near Bogotá’s main airport. Photograph: Colombia's National Police Press Office/AFP/ Drone strikes by armed groups have surged across Colombia since 2023, opening a dangerous new front in the country’s decades-long conflict. …