Addis Abeba — On 4 September 2025, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed toured the AeroAbay drone assembly plant and proudly declared that Ethiopia’s “locally produced drones” are “key to defending the nation’s economic gains” and essential to sustaining prosperity. “We are producing high number of suicidal drones,” he announced, unmistakably signaling both their combat and reconnaissance roles. He praised the facility’s capacity to build reconnaissance drones “capable of easily transporting a variety of equipment” and added that “numerous institutions are also engaged in the manufacturing of drones.” Reflecting on Ethiopia’s earlier difficulties in acquiring the technology, Abiy boasted, “we have now progressed from merely buying drones to producing them using our own capacity.”
This tragedy, like many others before it, illustrates the gap between the state’s rhetoric of “progress” and the lived reality of Ethiopians under bombardment
The Prime Minister framed drones as proof that Ethiopia’s military power is growing in tandem with its economic development. “When threats arise that endanger the nation’s existence and sovereignty,” he said, “our technological power will protect our progress.” His words were unambiguous: drones are not simply tools of defense, but a cornerstone of Ethiopia’s vision of “sovereignty” and modernization. He even suggested their deployment in swarms to “destroy the enemy crowd.”
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Yet, weeks after these remarks, a drone strike on a health post in North Wollo killed four civilians, including a pregnant woman, and injured more than ten others, all of them Ethiopians. This tragedy, like many others before it, illustrates the gap between the state’s rhetoric of “progress” and the lived reality of Ethiopians under bombardment.
This publication has repeatedly documented this reality. In December 2023, our reporters detailed how a Full Gospel Church gathering in Baro village, Horro Guduru zone, in Oromia region, was struck, leaving eight dead. In Finote Selam, East Gojjam zone in Amhara region, our coverage confirmed that at least 30 civilians, mostly young men in their twenties, were killed in an August 2023 strike. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission later corroborated attacks in Debre Markos, while UN investigators documented strikes on a bus station and a school that killed at least 20 civilians.
These are not isolated cases. During the two-year devastating war in the Tigray region, multiple drone strikes were conducted by the government, including the January 2022 attack on a camp for internally displaced persons in Dedebit that killed 56 civilians, and another strike on a flour mill in May Tsebri that killed 17.
Our January 2024 editorial explicitly called on the Ethiopian National Defense Forces to exercise restraint and halt the targeting of civilians. That call went unanswered. A year and a half later, civilians remain under the terrifying shadows of drone strikes.
Ethiopia risks the same fate of its own nature. By choosing drones over dialogue, the government is trading short-term military spectacle for long-term instability
Decades-long global record underscores that Ethiopia’s experience is not unique. In Death from Above: UAVs and Losing Hearts and Minds (2013), anthropologist Jeffrey A. Sluka warned that the “precision” of drones is a dangerous myth. Counterinsurgency strategist David Kilcullen told U.S. Congress that “every one of these dead noncombatants [creates] an alienated family, a new desire for revenge, and more recruits for a militant movement.” Sluka concluded that drones are “criminal weapons of state terror.” Ethiopia’s trajectory, where survivors across the country are embittered by repeated strikes, mirrors this global pattern.
The collapse of the Afghan government in 2021, following two decades of relentless U.S. drone and counterinsurgency campaigns, should serve as a cautionary tale. Reliance on airstrikes eroded trust, radicalized survivors, and ultimately paved the way for the Taliban’s return to Kabul. Ethiopia risks the same fate of its own nature. By choosing drones over dialogue, the government is trading short-term military spectacle for long-term instability. Every civilian death, whether in a church, a school, or a hospital, is not only a tragedy but also a political wound that continue to undermine state legitimacy. Ethiopia cannot bomb its way to peace; drones are not the answer.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed bears direct responsibility for this doctrine. His rhetoric, which celebrates drones as symbols of sovereignty and progress, has helped cement their legitimacy as instruments of war at home while normalizing impunity
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed bears direct responsibility for this doctrine. His rhetoric, which celebrates drones as symbols of sovereignty and progress, has helped cement their legitimacy as instruments of war at home while normalizing impunity. Yet no words can obscure the reality: celebrating drones while civilians perish beneath them is a profound moral and political failure. True national strength is not measured in weapons assembly or domestic production, but in the protection of life, dignity, and human rights. Every strike, every death, is not an accident of war but a direct extension of deliberate policy choices.
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International silence only deepens this tragedy. The recent removal of explicit calls to halt drone strikes from a U.S. Embassy statement illustrates troubling complicity. When diplomacy prioritizes strategic interests over civilian protection, Ethiopia’s people are left abandoned under skies of terror.
For years, Ethiopians have lived with the human cost of drone warfare. Testimonies, documented mass casualties, and repeated international appeals for restraint have yielded no tangible change. That is why the demand must now go further: toward accountability. The government must be held accountable to immediately halt drone strikes on civilian areas, permit independent investigations into past atrocities, and ensure that perpetrators face justice. The international community must also act with clarity and urgency: security and military cooperation, and diplomatic engagement must be conditioned on Ethiopia’s compliance with international humanitarian law.
