Sudan accuses Ethiopia, UAE of being behind recent drone attacks

Sudan has accused Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of playing a role in the recent drone attacks on the country, warning that the aggression will not be “met with silence”.

On Tuesday, the Sudanese government recalled its ambassador from Ethiopia, accusing Addis Ababa and the UAE of being behind an attack on Khartoum International Airport that forced authorities to suspend operations for three days.

Sudan’s military said it has evidence that four drone attacks have been launched from neighbouring Ethiopia since early March, alleging that the UAE supplied the drones.

In a statement, Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and accused Sudan of fomenting unrest by funding rebels in the Tigray region – the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). It added that it had not publicised the alleged violations of its territorial integrity because the two countries share a “historic and enduring bond of friendship”.

A senior official with the TPLF, Amanuel Assefa, dismissed the federal government’s remarks and told the AFP news agency: “We have no connections with the Sudanese authorities.” He said the government was blaming everyone “but themselves for their failures”.

The UAE has not yet reacted, but has repeatedly denied funding the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group that has been at war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for more than three years.

Last week, Khartoum International Airport received its first flight since the conflict began, marking a period of relative calm in the capital – now shattered by a renewed wave of drone attacks.

The government’s SAF retook the city from the RSF in March last year. In recent months, more than 1.8 million people have returned to Khartoum, but much of the city remains without electricity or basic services.

Drones have become a central component of the war, which the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

More than 150,000 people are estimated to have been killed, while about 14 million have been displaced, according to the UN.

The war began in April 2023 after a power struggle erupted between the army and the RSF.

‘Very dangerous dynamic’

Alan Boswell, the Horn of Africa director at the International Crisis Group (ICG), warned that Sudan’s accusation against Ethiopia marks a dangerous new phase in a conflict already destabilising the region.

“Both countries … are facing massive internal challenges, and essentially, both sides now see the other as supporting their armed opponents,” Boswell told Al Jazeera.

That suspicion of each other, he argued, “creates a very dangerous dynamic … and risks making their own internal challenges much worse”.

Moreover, Boswell linked the timing of the attacks directly to the ongoing civil war in Sudan.

“The main trigger really is just that this war in Sudan just continues to escalate with no clear off-ramp, and it is really starting to tear apart the Horn of Africa region,” he said, pointing to outside backers on both sides, including the UAE.

Abu Dhabi has repeatedly denied involvement in the conflict.

Without foreign support, Boswell argued, “both warring parties in Sudan would have run out of munitions very early in this war”. He also warned of an “unprecedented” level of regional interference.