Three years after the outbreak of the civil war, the Sudanese Armed Forces on Tuesday accused Ethiopia and the UAE of carrying out a drone attack that targeted Khartoum International Airport on Monday. This came in a Sudanese response to the latest series of attacks that ended a months-long relative calm in the capital, Khartoum. Sudan subsequently summoned its ambassador to Addis Ababa for consultations. The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the accusations, describing them as “baseless,” while the UAE has not yet responded to requests for comment.

Published on: 05/05/2026 - 03:37 Last updated: 05/05/2026 - 17:57

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Sudan summoned its ambassador to Addis Ababa on Tuesday for consultations, after its armed forces accused Ethiopia and the UAE of carrying out a drone attack that targeted Khartoum Airport on Monday. This came in the latest series of attacks that Sudan witnessed in the past few days, and ended a relative calm that lasted for months in the Sudanese capital, three years after the outbreak of the civil war.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday rejected what it described as “baseless accusations” and denied its involvement in them. Addis Ababa accused the Sudanese Armed Forces of supporting hostile parties and violating Ethiopia's territorial integrity.

The UAE has not yet responded to requests for comment, and Reuters has been unable to independently verify these allegations. Sudan has repeatedly accused the UAE of supporting the Rapid Support Forces, an accusation that the Gulf state denies.

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Mutual accusations between Khartoum and Addis Ababa

Sudan also accused Ethiopia of allowing drones to be launched from its territory. In February, Reuters reported that Ethiopia was hosting a training camp for thousands of fighters for the Rapid Support Forces, and that it had developed the nearby Assosa airport for use in drone operations. Ethiopia did not respond to requests for comment at that time.

Residents told Reuters that the strikes had targeted military targets and civilian areas in the city since Friday, which began to witness the return of citizens, ministries and international agencies since the army regained control in March 2025.

Witnesses reported that Monday's drone attacks targeted Khartoum International Airport, which witnessed some of the first battles between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023. Last week, the airport received the first international flight in three years.

The Sudanese army threatens not to remain silent about "direct aggression"

Army spokesman Brigadier General Assem Awad Abdel Wahab said that the government has evidence that the attacks that targeted several states, and began on the first of March, were launched from the Ethiopian Bahir Dar Airport, pointing to information that could be obtained from a drone that was shot down in mid-March, which linked it to targeting the airport and the Emirates. He added that the army linked another drone launched from the same airport to Monday's attack.

Abdel-Wahab added, "What the countries of Ethiopia and the UAE did is a direct aggression against Sudan, and it will not be met with silence."

Drones dominate the conflict

Residents, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they believed the Rapid Support Forces were behind the new attacks. There was no comment from the paramilitary force or the army on the attacks.

The Ministry of Information said that no one was harmed and no damage was caused as a result of the attack on the airport, which will return to work after routine safety procedures.

Drone warfare has become the main tool in the conflict that has caused what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian disaster, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives due to violence, hunger and disease, and forcing millions to flee.

Sporadic attacks and civilian casualties

Witnesses told Reuters that drones attacked the city of Omdurman, as well as the cities of El Obeid to the west and Kenana to the south over the weekend.

The Emergency Lawyers group, which includes activists, reported that one such attack killed five people on a civilian bus in southern Omdurman on Saturday. Another attack on Sunday killed members of the family of Abu Aqla Kikal, a leader of a tribal armed group allied with the army who defected from the Rapid Support Forces earlier during the war.

New defections in the Rapid Support Forces

These attacks follow another defection, that of Al-Nur Al-Qubba, a senior RSF commander who was received by the army in Khartoum with his forces late last month, raising fears of tension within the army alliance.

The war broke out in Sudan after a dispute between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese army over plans to merge their forces and transition to democracy. The Rapid Support Forces quickly took control of Khartoum but were expelled from it last year. Since then, it has strengthened its control over the Darfur region in the west and opened a new front, which also witnessed repeated drone attacks, in the Blue Nile state on the border with Ethiopia.

France 24/Reuters

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