Sudan blames Ethiopia, UAE for recent drone attacks: What we know
Sudan recalls its ambassador to Addis Ababa as drone attacks shatter sense of calm after years of civil war.
6 May 2026
The Sudanese government has accused Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates of being behind recent drone attacks, including at Khartoum airport.
Military spokesperson Brigadier General Asim Awad Abdelwahab told a news conference on Tuesday that Sudan’s government, which has recalled its ambassador from Ethiopia, had obtained evidence of four drone attacks since March 1 originating from neighbouring Ethiopia’s Bahir Dar airport. It claims the UAE provided the drones used in the attacks.
“What Ethiopia and the UAE have done is direct aggression against Sudan and won’t be met with silence,” Abdelwahab said.
Foreign Minister Mohieddin Salem said that while Khartoum will not initiate attacks against other countries, “whoever attacks us will be met with a response”, and that Sudan was ready to “enter into an open confrontation” with Ethiopia “if it becomes necessary”.
His comments came following a strike on Monday at the airport in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. Previous attacks have been launched towards the Sudanese states of Kordofan, Blue Nile and White Nile.
A drone attack on Saturday on Omdurman, Sudan’s second-largest city, killed five people travelling on a civilian bus, while another attack the following day in the central Sudan state of Gezira killed relatives of Abu Agla Kaikal, a commander with the Sudan Shield Forces, a group allied with the Sudanese military, who defected from the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) earlier in the war.
Drone attacks have been frequent since Sudan descended into a bloody civil war on April 15, 2023, the result of a power struggle between the RSF, a powerful paramilitary force, and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), but Khartoum was now considered largely safe.
Khartoum International Airport, where some of the early fighting between the RSF and Sudan’s army took place, received its first international flight in three years last week, before the string of attacks shattered the sense of calm in the capital and in central Sudan.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/6 ... at-we-know
