Drones reshape war in Colombia as deaths and injuries mount

The Colombian army has launched its own battalion of unmanned aircraft as part of efforts to tackle the growing threat. Photograph: Raúl Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images

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.