Sudan takes complaints over alleged drone launches from Ethiopia to UN and AU

Sudan has submitted complaints against Ethiopia to the United Nations Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council over a series of deadly drone attacks this year. Sudanese authorities allege that the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, used Ethiopian territory to launch strikes inside Sudan.

In a statement issued late on Sunday, November 1, Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the attacks had targeted civilian locations and power stations. It accused the paramilitary group of causing hundreds of casualties and interrupting essential services, and said the incidents raised questions about Ethiopia’s responsibility under international law.

The allegations come amid competing accusations between the two countries. Sudan’s military has repeatedly alleged that Ethiopia supports the RSF, its opponent in the civil war that began in April 2023. Ethiopia has, in turn, accused the Sudanese military of supporting rebels linked to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Khartoum has denied that allegation.

Alongside the ministry’s statement, Sudan’s army-led Transitional Sovereignty Council released a report alleging that 187 one-way attack drones were used in 70 assaults between February 15 and October 27. According to the report, those attacks killed or wounded 484 civilians. It also reported that 176 Sudanese soldiers were killed and another 200 were wounded.

The council alleged that armed drones had been departing from Ethiopian territory to attack Sudanese cities and civilians since February 2026. It named three launch locations: Asosa Airport in western Ethiopia, the Kurmuk-Gizen border area and Bahir Dar airbase in the northwestern Ethiopian region of Amhara.

The report attributed 28 attacks involving 97 drones to October alone. Among the incidents it described was an October 9 strike on displaced families in Wad el-Mahi, in Sudan’s Blue Nile region near the Ethiopian border. The council said 30 civilians, comprising 26 women and four children, were killed and 100 people were wounded.

The complaints followed a statement on Saturday from a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said the UN chief was “appalled” by the effects of drone strikes in Sudan. That statement came days after a separate strike on a market in RSF-controlled territory in Darfur killed more than 100 people.

The spokesman said Guterres strongly condemned the escalating use of drones by the parties fighting in Sudan and their catastrophic impact on civilians. He also said the strikes violated international humanitarian law.