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Civilian Casualties · Colombia Conflict · Drone Warfare · Security Risks
Drone attacks in Colombia are increasingly targeting civilians, with 115 incidents reported in 2024, as rebel groups like FARC dissidents and ELN guerrillas deploy commercially available drones with improvised explosives, leading to civilian deaths and injuries, and forcing the Colombian military to acquire counter-drone technology.
The article, published March 5, 2025, details how improvised drones, fashioned from commercially available models like the DJI Pro 4, are used by irregular armed groups to drop homemade bombs, causing terror and casualties. In February 2025, a drone-dropped grenade exploded on a Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) tented hospital in El Plateado, Cauca, injuring health workers.
The next day, two more civilians, including an 80-year-old woman, were injured in a second attack, and 1,000 people were forced to flee their homes. A 10-year-old boy was killed in July by a drone bomb on a soccer pitch in El Plateado, marking the first reported civilian drone death in Colombia.
The Ministry of Defense reported 115 drone attacks in Colombia in 2024, a significant increase from previous years. The Colombian military is responding by deploying counter-drone systems, such as the Spanish-manufactured Crow jamming system, which detected over 300 unmanned aerial systems and blocked 90 unauthorized drone activities at COP 16 in Cali, and handheld DroneBusters.
However, concerns remain that military jamming devices could cause drones to crash and detonate on bystanders, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported 380 victims of explosive devices in 2023, with 60 percent being civilians.
