Sudan’s Armed Forces Blame UAE And Ethiopia For Drone Attack On Khartoum Airport

Sudan’s armed forces blamed a drone attack on Monday that targeted Khartoum airport, describing it as part of a barrage of assaults that shattered months of relative calm in the capital three years into the country’s civil war.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Sudan’s armed forces blamed the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia for the attack on Khartoum airport, while Reuters could not independently verify the claims and neither country immediately commented on the allegations made late on Monday.

Al Jazeera

The attack was described as targeting Khartoum International Airport, where “some of the earliest fighting erupted between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023,” and where the airport received its first international flight in three years last week, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Witnesses told Reuters that strikes launched since Friday hit both military targets and civilian areas in a city where people, ministries, and international agencies had started returning since the army retook control there in March 2025, as described by The Jerusalem Post and Sight Magazine.

The Information Ministry said earlier that no one was wounded and no damage was caused by the attack on the airport, which would return to operations after routine safety procedures, a point repeated in both The Jerusalem Post and Sight Magazine.

AP reported a different but related sequence at the same airport, saying Sudanese military officials said a drone launched by paramilitary forces targeted the airport but was shot down before it could hit the target, with airport officials saying it caused no damage or casualties.

Across the accounts, the airport’s gradual reopening last year was described by AP as a key step in efforts to restore normal life in Khartoum, and the flights stopped briefly but would resume after routine checks, according to AP.

The Jerusalem Post tied Monday’s attack to a specific chain of alleged launches, saying Army spokesman Brigadier General Asim Awad Abdelwahab stated that the government had evidence that attacks on several states beginning on March 1 had taken off from Ethiopia's Bahir Dar airport.

The report said Abdelwahab referred to information from a drone downed in mid-March that he said linked it to the airport and to the United Arab Emirates, and he said the army linked another drone launched from the same airport to the Monday attack.

Al Jazeera

The Jerusalem Post also described how drones had dominated the conflict and said witnesses told Reuters that drones struck Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman as well as the cities of al-Obeid to the west and Kenana to the south over the weekend.

It added that one drone killed five people in a civilian bus in southern Omdurman on Saturday, according to Emergency Lawyers, and another on Sunday killed family members of Abu Agla Keikal, a tribal militia leader allied with the army who defected from the RSF earlier in the war.

AP’s account similarly placed the Monday incident within a broader pattern, saying the attack came just days after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces killed at least five people in a drone attack that hit a civilian vehicle on the outskirts of Khartoum on Saturday.

Daily Sabah described the immediate mechanics from the capital’s eastern districts, reporting that witnesses heard loud explosions and anti-aircraft fire across eastern districts including Arkweet, Burri and Riyadh, and that plumes of smoke were seen rising near the airport as defense systems engaged suspected drones.

The same Daily Sabah report said the latest attack came “just two days after a drone strike blamed on the RSF killed five civilians when it hit a vehicle west of Khartoum,” again citing Emergency Lawyers.

The sources present competing claims about who carried out the drone attacks and what the Sudanese state did in response, with multiple named voices describing different outcomes.

“Al Jazeera quoted a source familiar with the Sudanese government saying that the situation around Khartoum International Airport has returned to normal after it was struck by a strategic drone launched by the Rapid Support Forces”

Al-Jazeera Net

The Jerusalem Post quoted Brigadier General Asim Awad Abdelwahab saying, “What Ethiopia and the UAE have done is direct aggression against Sudan and won't be met with silence,” while also stating that the army had evidence connecting the alleged launches to Ethiopia’s Bahir Dar airport and to the United Arab Emirates.

The report said locals believed the Rapid Support Forces were behind the new attacks, and it noted that “The RSF has not commented on them,” leaving attribution contested even as the army made allegations.

AP described a different operational outcome, saying the military government confirmed the drone was intercepted and that a military official told The Associated Press the drone was launched from a neighboring country but provided no further details, with officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

Daily Sabah added another layer by reporting that a military source told AFP, “Our air defenses successfully downed drones that were targeting Khartoum airport,” and that the situation was under control.

Al Jazeera’s coverage of the broader pattern around Khartoum also included attribution by an NGO, saying a drone strike carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces killed five civilians in Khartoum, according to Emergency Lawyers, and that the NGO said it holds the RSF fully responsible.

Al-Jazeera Net, meanwhile, quoted a source familiar with the Sudanese government saying the situation around Khartoum International Airport had returned to normal after it was struck by a strategic drone launched by the Rapid Support Forces, while also saying a military source said the army’s air defenses succeeded in shooting down drones targeting the eastern area of Khartoum Airport.

The reporting diverges on both the scale of casualties and the emphasis placed on the airport incident, even when the underlying event is the same.

The Jerusalem Post and Sight Magazine both describe the Monday drone attack as part of a sudden barrage that shattered months of relative calm, and both cite the Information Ministry’s claim that “no one was wounded and no damage was caused by the attack on the airport,” while also describing the airport’s first international flight in three years last week.

AP News

AP, however, focuses on the interception outcome, saying the drone was shot down by Sudan’s air defenses as it approached the airport from the south and “caused no damage or casualties,” and it adds that flights stopped briefly but would resume after routine checks.

Daily Sabah emphasizes the soundscape and geography of the response, reporting witnesses heard anti-aircraft fire in eastern districts including Arkweet, Burri and Riyadh, and it states that there was no immediate official statement from Sudanese authorities regarding the incident.

Al Jazeera shifts attention to civilian harm elsewhere in Khartoum, reporting that a drone strike carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces killed five civilians in Khartoum, according to Emergency Lawyers, and it adds that nearly 700 civilians were killed in drone strikes in the first three months of this year, according to UN figures.

Al-Jazeera Net adds a different operational detail, saying a security source and another at Khartoum Airport told Al Jazeera that the eastern parts of Khartoum Airport were hit by three rocket-fired munitions from a strategic drone, before the airport was evacuated and movement on roads leading to it was halted.

The Jerusalem Post and Sight Magazine both say the RSF has not commented on the new attacks, but they frame the attribution differently, with The Jerusalem Post reporting Sudan’s armed forces blamed the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia while locals believed the Rapid Support Forces were behind the new attacks.

Beyond the immediate airport targeting, the sources place Monday’s drone barrage within a wider humanitarian and political trajectory, including the war’s origins, displacement, and the continuing expansion of fronts.

“Sudanese military downs drone launched by paramilitary forces at the main airport, officials say SHENDI, Sudan (AP) — A drone launched by Sudan ‘s paramilitary forces targeted the airport in the capital of Khartoum on Monday but was shot down before it could hit the target, airport officials said”

AP News

The Jerusalem Post and Sight Magazine both recount that Sudan’s war erupted after the RSF and the Sudanese army fell out over plans to integrate their forces and transition to democracy, and they say the RSF quickly took over Khartoum but was pushed out last year.

AP News

The Jerusalem Post adds that the army retook control of Khartoum in March 2025 and that the RSF consolidated control of the Darfur region in the west while opening a new front marked by repeated drone attacks in Blue Nile state along the border with Ethiopia.

AP provides a stark mortality and displacement framing, saying “Since the war started, at least 59,000 people have been killed,” according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, and it also says the war has displaced 12 million people, according to the United Nations.

Al Jazeera similarly describes the scale of displacement and need, stating that since April 2023 “around 14 million people have been displaced and two-thirds of the population are in urgent need of humanitarian support, according to the United Nations.”

The sources also describe how drone warfare is interwoven with civilian targeting and infrastructure, with Al Jazeera saying the RSF carried out a series of drone strikes on Khartoum last year targeting military sites, power stations and water infrastructure, and with Al Jazeera Net describing the RSF’s strategy as targeting civilian objects and production centers.

Al Jazeera Net further reports that “10 people were killed and dozens injured, most of them women and children, in a drone strike by the Sudanese army on a market in the Blue Nile region,” citing Emergency Lawyers and naming Bilaya Market in the Karomok locality.