Africa — 2026-05-08

Sudan Accuses Ethiopia and UAE of Drone Attacks on Khartoum Airport

Sudan's military spokesperson Brigadier General Asim Awad Abdelwahab said at a Tuesday news conference that data recovered from a drone shot down in el-Obeid showed UAE-supplied drones were launched from Ethiopia's Bahir Dar airport, striking army positions on March 1 and 17 and Khartoum's international airport on Monday. Al Jazeera also reported a Saturday drone strike on a civilian bus in Omdurman killed five people. Sudan recalled its ambassador to Addis Ababa, and Foreign Minister Mohieddin Salem warned Khartoum was prepared for "open confrontation" with Ethiopia. Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry rejected the accusations as "baseless" and alleged Sudan had armed Tigray People's Liberation Front fighters on their shared border; an unnamed UAE official told AFP the allegations were "fabrications."

Analysis
Sudan's explicit naming of Bahir Dar airport as a drone launch site, uncorroborated by independent forensics and based solely on Sudanese military claims, crosses from chronic covert-support allegations into named-state direct aggression and signals Khartoum has chosen political escalation over absorption. Both governments have committed to incompatible public narratives, with Addis Ababa's TPLF counter-allegation entrenching rather than defusing the dispute, and formal diplomatic relations are likely to remain suspended through end of 2026. The attribution chain runs through sources with a direct interest in pressuring Ethiopia regardless of forensic accuracy. Khartoum's military capacity for a second front is constrained by the RSF conflict, making the confrontation language a pressure lever rather than an operational signal.
2 sources
  1. Sudan blames Ethiopia UAE for drone attacks - Al Jazeera
  2. UAE dismisses 'unfounded accusations' of involvement in Khartoum airport attack - The National

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