Sudan Accuses Ethiopia of Letting the RSF Launch Drone Attacks; Ethiopia Denies It

Sudan has complained to the UN Security Council and the African Union, accusing Ethiopia of allowing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to launch drone attacks on civilian sites from Ethiopian territory, including power stations. Ethiopia has denied Sudan's accusations that it supports the RSF or allows drones to be launched from its territory.

The RSF has been at war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April 2023. Sudan has repeatedly accused Ethiopia of backing the RSF, according to Anadolu Agency, which reported the latest complaints.

A report by Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and military intelligence claimed that 70 attacks involving 187 one-way attack drones, which are designed to strike a target rather than return, were launched from Ethiopian territory between February and October. The same report claimed 28 of those attacks, involving 97 drones, took place in October. Al Jazeera carried these figures.

A separate report from the Transitional Sovereignty Council, a body linked to Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the SAF, put the death toll from drone attacks between February 15 and October 27 at 176 Sudanese soldiers and 484 civilians. That report named three launch sites: Asosa Airport in western Ethiopia, the Kurmuk-Gizen border area, and the Bahir Dar airbase in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.

Among the incidents cited, a drone attack on October 3 hit displaced families in Wad el-Mahi, near the Ethiopian border, killing 26 women and four children. On October 26, a drone attack in Nyala, the main city of Sudan's Darfur region, killed at least 21 people and injured at least 40. Sudanese officials have also said that drone attacks have put more than 90 percent of power stations in Sudanese cities out of service.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was appalled by the use of drones in the Sudan war. He condemned the catastrophic toll on civilians.