The UAE has denied an allegation from Sudan's army-led government that it was involved in drone strikes on Khartoum’s airport, with an Emirati official describing the claims as “unfounded" and "deliberate propaganda”.
The airport in the Sudanese capital was hit on Monday, along with military installations across the greater Khartoum area. Sudanese army spokesman Brig Gen Assim Awad Abdel Wahab claimed at a media conference that drone attacks were launched from Ethiopia in collaboration with the UAE.
He also alleged that UAE-made drones launched from Ethiopia's Bahir Dar airport struck Sudanese army positions across several states on March 1 and 17.
“The UAE notes this marked increase in unfounded accusations and deliberate propaganda from the Port Sudan Authority, which actively undermines efforts to end the conflict and restore stability,” the Emirati official said, referring to the army-led administration.
“These fabrications are part of a calculated pattern of deflection – shifting blame to others to evade responsibility for their own actions – and are intended to prolong the war and obstruct a genuine peace process.”
Sudan has been gripped by civil war since April 2023, after the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces fell out over plans to integrate their forces and transition to civilian rule.
The airport strike was part of a barrage that shattered months of relative calm in the capital as the war entered its fourth year. It drew condemnation from several countries in the region.
US senior adviser for Arab and African affairs Massad Boulos said "such attacks must stop" and called for the warring sides to "accept a humanitarian truce, move towards a permanent ceasefire and facilitate the transition to a civilian-led government on the basis of an inclusive national dialogue".
Drone warfare between Sudan's army and the RSF has intensified across the country in recent months. Both sides have been accused by the UN of committing atrocities against civilians.
The Sudanese army has repeatedly accused the UAE of arming the RSF – a claim the Emirates strongly denies. The UAE has said it supports neither side in the conflict and has called for an immediate end to the devastating war.
Ethiopia also rejected what it called “baseless accusations” in a statement on Tuesday.
Sudan-Ethiopia tensions
Tensions between the Sudanese administration and Ethiopia escalated after the airport strike. The incident adds a new layer of strain to already fragile relations between the two neighbours. These have been repeatedly tested in recent years over the disputed Al Fashaga border region and wider regional instability linked to Sudan’s internal conflict.
Ethiopia faces insurgencies across its territory. Observers say the two conflicts are increasingly overlapping and drawing in external actors from the wider region.
Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry denied involvement in the airport attack and accused Sudan's army of supporting hostile actors and breaching its territorial integrity and national security. The ministry said the violations include the use of fighters linked to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
The TPLF, whose armed wing fought a civil war against Ethiopia’s government from 2020 to 2022, remains a politically influential but constrained actor in Ethiopian politics.
Although the 2022 Pretoria peace agreement formally ended hostilities and led to the establishment of an interim administration in the Tigray region, key elements of the deal have been only partially implemented. Relations between the TPLF and Ethiopia's government remain tense and lacking in trust.
“Sudan is serving as a hub for various anti-Ethiopian forces,” the ministry in Addis Ababa said on X, accusing Tigrayan forces of serving as mercenaries in Sudan. “The Sudanese armed forces have also provided arms and financial support to these mercenaries, thereby facilitating their incursions along Ethiopia's western frontier."
Long-standing disputes
Sudan and Ethiopia have been periodically at odds for decades over the border dispute and mutual accusations of backing rebels against the other side, but have so far stopped short of full-scale war. They fought a series of deadly skirmishes in 2020 over farmland in eastern Sudan long settled by Ethiopians but claimed by Sudan.
The clashes took place after the Sudanese military moved to wrest back control of some of the border enclaves, which had been settled since the 1950s by members of Ethiopia’s powerful Amhara ethnic group and allied militiamen. The enclaves are widely believed to include some of the most fertile farmlands in Sudan, which allowed the settlers to stay under an informal agreement.
Sudan and Ethiopia are also locked in a dispute over the enormous hydroelectric dam Addis Ababa has built on the Blue Nile – the Nile river's main tributary – less than 20km from the Sudanese border.
Sudan and Egypt want Ethiopia to enter a legally binding agreement related to the filling and operation of the dam, as well as mechanisms to resolve future disputes arising from drought.
Without such an agreement, Sudan maintains that its eastern region would be vulnerable to destructive flooding and the disruption of its own power-generating dams on the Blue Nile.
But analysts say Sudan’s army is unlikely to open a new front with Ethiopia despite the rising tensions.
“I don't expect the latest dispute to escalate into direct military confrontation,” said Osman Mirghany, a Sudanese analyst and publisher. “The worst we can expect is perhaps stepped-up Ethiopian support for the Rapid Support Forces and the same from Sudan to anti-government movements like the one in the Tigray region.”
