Sudan accuses Ethiopia, UAE of orchestrating drone attacks on airport

Basillioh RukangaWednesday May 6, 2026

Officials say operations at the airport, pictured here in February, have been suspended following the drone strikes

Sudan has levelled extraordinary accusations against neighbouring Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), saying the two countries were behind drone strikes on its main airport in what it called “direct aggression”.

The capital’s international airport was struck on Monday, together with military sites across the Greater Khartoum area.

The attacks have broken a spell of relative calm in Khartoum after the Sudanese military drove the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) out of the city last year.

Ethiopia has dismissed suggestions that it played any part in the airport assault as “baseless”. The UAE said the “unfounded accusations and deliberate propaganda” were damaging efforts to end the conflict.

Foreign Minister Mohieddin Salem said Sudan had recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia for “consultations” over the attack.

Sudan’s information minister told Reuters that no-one was wounded.

The army said it had “conclusive evidence” that the drones came from Bahir Dar airport in Ethiopia, according to the state-run Sudan News Agency (Suna).

Sudanese military officials first accused the RSF in March of launching air attacks from within Ethiopian territory.

They said at the time they had tracked a drone, which they identified as Emirati property, entering Sudanese airspace from Ethiopia before shooting it down.

An army spokesman now says a second drone, launched from the same airport, has been linked to Monday’s strike.

The UAE has repeatedly rejected allegations that it is supplying military backing to the RSF.

In response to the latest claims, a UAE official said Sudanese authorities were spreading “fabrications” that formed “part of a calculated pattern of deflection – shifting blame to others to evade responsibility for their own actions”.

The assault came just a week after the first direct international commercial flight in three years touched down at the airport.

Authorities then ordered a 72-hour suspension of operations at the facility.

The airport has been a central flashpoint in the war between the regular army and the RSF, which erupted in 2023.

In February, Reuters reported that Ethiopia was hosting a camp to train RSF fighters and had expanded nearby Asosa airport for drone operations.

The report said the effort was supported by Ethiopia’s close ally, the United Arab Emirates.

Both Ethiopia and the UAE denied the allegations.

Witnesses told AFP on Monday that they heard explosions and saw smoke rising from an area close to the airport.

The strike is also reported to have caused slight damage to an administrative building.

The information ministry said the airport would resume operations after routine safety checks.

Sudan’s foreign minister said the drones had been launched from Ethiopia, despite describing Ethiopia as a “brotherly state” to Sudan. He said the UAE and Ethiopia had taken the “wrong path” and would regret it.

Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Sudan and Ethiopia “share a historic and enduring bond of friendship” and had “refrained from publicising the grave violations of Ethiopia’s territorial integrity and national security committed by some belligerents in the Sudanese civil war”.

The ministry urged dialogue among the warring sides in Sudan.

Since fighting broke out in Sudan, more than 150,000 people have been killed and 12 million have fled their homes in what the UN has described as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

The three-year conflict has also triggered famine and allegations of genocide in the western Darfur region.

Additional reporting by Barbara Plett Usher