Sudan Accuses Ethiopia of Enabling Drone Attacks: 70 Strikes, 484 Civilian Casualties, Complaint to the Security Council Planned
Sudan's Transitional Sovereignty Council issued a report on November 1 accusing Ethiopia of enabling drone attacks on Sudan: three sites inside Ethiopia, Asosa airport, the Kurmuk-Gizen border area and Bahir Dar air base, were used to launch 70 drone attacks between February 15 and October 27, killing or wounding 484 civilians and causing nearly 400 casualties among Sudanese soldiers. Khartoum said the findings were drawn from downed aircraft, flight data and military records.
The Sudanese military said Ethiopia provides direct support to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and that Sudan will file formal complaints with the UN Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council while reserving its right of self-defence under international law. Ethiopia denies aiding the RSF and counters that Khartoum supports Tigrayan rebels, an assertion Sudan rejects.
The accusation comes as drone warfare inside Sudan sharply escalates. According to the Associated Press, 12 power stations across six states, including Khartoum, Gezira, Sennar, Gedaref, River Nile and Red Sea, have been hit since Monday; a power station at Abu Hamad in River Nile State was struck and set ablaze on November 1, and on October 31 drones hit an oil pumping station at Haya in Red Sea State, igniting crude storage tanks on the pipeline that carries South Sudanese oil to Port Sudan for export. Sudan's cabinet met on November 1 and ordered heightened protection for electricity installations.
Egypt's foreign ministry, in a statement carried by Sudan's news agency SUNA the same day, condemned the escalation of drone attacks on civilians and vital facilities as a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, called for an end to the flow of weapons to the RSF through neighbouring countries, and reaffirmed its support for Sudan's unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Sudan's civil war, between the army and the RSF since April 2023, has displaced about 13 million people. The United Nations estimates that drone strikes have become the leading cause of civilian casualties in Sudan, killing more than 1,100 people in the first half of this year alone.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：苏丹港集装箱码头（红海州）。本轮无人机袭击曾击中同州哈亚的输油泵站。照片：Totoyba2，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The Port Sudan container terminal in Red Sea State; drone strikes this week hit an oil pumping station at Haya in the same state. Photo: Totoyba2, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
