Whenever a low buzz like a hornet tears the silence of the small wooden house in Tibú, in Colombia's Catatumbo region, Sandra Montoya freezes. By reflex, she hugs her young son tight.
The sound always comes from a small hill behind the house, set amid the lush landscape of rivers snaking along the Colombia-Venezuela border. “I always hear them before I see them, if I can see them at all,” Montoya says. “They are often just faint black dots in the distance, sometimes heading straight for us.”
Drones—some carrying explosives—constantly hover over Catatumbo, a longtime flashpoint for fighting between rival armed groups and government forces.
The menacing buzz sends Montoya’s five-year-old son running to the bathroom—the only room in the wooden house built of solid concrete—to hide. “A drone can destroy everything here,” she says, asking to remain anonymous for security reasons. “But I have to say something to him. How can a five-year-old have to live in such fear?”
According to Colombia’s Defense Ministry, the country recorded 8,395 armed drone attacks in 2025, 333 of which were “effective,” striking their targets. That figure is up 445% from 2024, when only 61 effective attacks were recorded.
Experts warn the situation reflects a global trend as drones are increasingly used in conflict, threatening civilian safety. In Tibú in May 2025, a 12-year-old boy and his mother died when a drone-dropped bomb hit their home during fighting between armed groups.
Catatumbo, along the Venezuelan border, is the epicenter of drone violence but not the only area. Last month, three soldiers died after a drone attack by an armed group in Nariño, in the southwest. In total in 2025, 20 people have been killed and 297 wounded by drones, according to the Defense Ministry.
