Rwanda has become a global leader in using drones to deliver medical supplies to remote areas, addressing the challenges of mountainous terrain and poor road infrastructure. The American robotics company Zipline has run the nationwide drone network since 2016, dispatching a drone roughly every 50 seconds and cutting delivery times for blood, medicine and other supplies from up to eight hours by road to as little as 30 minutes by air. The programme has coincided with a sharp fall in maternal mortality, but the article highlights that drones alone cannot fix deeper gaps in Rwanda's healthcare system, particularly as US aid cuts under the Trump administration squeeze other forms of support.

In 2025, the Trump administration pledged $150 million to expand Zipline's operations in Rwanda and four other African countries, even as it cut around $200 million in USAID funding that had supported food and health assistance for rural Rwandan communities. Drones travel at roughly 64mph and can reach anywhere in the country within 30 minutes, and were credited with delivering blood in minutes to a woman, Noella Mukanoheli, who needed an emergency transfusion during childbirth. Maternal deaths have fallen from around 1,000 per 100,000 births 26 years ago to 87 today, according to health official Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, but remote clinics still lack basics such as oxygen equipment and ultrasound machines, and patients often must travel over two hours for complex care — gaps that drone deliveries cannot close.