Sudan recalls ambassador to Ethiopia after drone strike hits Khartoum airport
Sudan recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia on Tuesday and accused both Addis Ababa and the United Arab Emirates of orchestrating a drone attack on Khartoum's international airport, sharply escalating tensions between the two neighboring countries at a moment when the Sudanese capital had only just begun to reopen to the world. The strike marked the end of several months of relative calm in Khartoum and came amid a broader wave of aerial attacks that has intensified in recent days.
Sudan's Foreign Minister Mohi El-Din Salem announced the recall of the ambassador "for consultations" and stated that Sudan is prepared to enter into "open confrontation with Ethiopia" if necessary. Salem alleged that the drones that struck Sudanese installations on Monday were launched from Bahir Dar airport in Ethiopia. At a press conference held the same day, military spokesman Brigadier General Asim Awad Abdelwahab said the government held "conclusive evidence" regarding the origin of the attack. Military representatives stated that evidence linked four drone strikes carried out since March 1 to Bahir Dar airport, and that the UAE had supplied the drones used. Authorities added that data recovered from a drone that entered Sudanese airspace on March 17 had confirmed it was launched from Ethiopian territory and was connected to the Emirates. Neither Ethiopia nor the UAE had publicly responded to the accusations at the time of reporting.
Monday's drone strikes targeted Khartoum international airport as well as military sites in the capital, triggering explosions and plumes of smoke visible across the city. The timing was particularly damaging: the airport had received its first international flight in three years just days earlier, representing a fragile but symbolically significant step toward normalcy after years of conflict. No casualties or structural damage were reported from Monday's strike, but authorities evacuated airport personnel and closed the facility for 72 hours as a precautionary measure. Sudan's foreign minister, while describing Ethiopia as a "sister nation," nonetheless asserted his country's legal right to respond to what he called an act of aggression by whatever means it deemed appropriate.
The airport attack was part of a wider surge in drone activity attributed to the Rapid Support Forces that began late last week. On Saturday, an RSF drone killed at least five civilians travelling in a vehicle from White Nile State toward Omdurman, striking the car on the Jammouiya Triangle road. That attack followed an earlier drone strike on a hospital in the Jebel Awliya area south of Khartoum. The escalation comes three years after Sudan's civil war began in April 2023, pitting the national army against the RSF. According to United Nations figures, nearly 700 civilians were killed in drone strikes in Sudan during the first three months of 2026 alone. Both the army and the RSF have significantly increased their use of drone warfare in recent months, with strikes on civilian and military targets alike becoming an increasingly lethal feature of the conflict.
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