Drones shatter months of relative calm in Sudan’s capital as international airport targeted

Khartoum rocked by new attacks as Sudan again alleges UAE and Ethiopia involvement in the civil war

Sudan’s armed forces blamed a drone attack ⁠on Monday that targeted Khartoum airport on the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia, the latest in a barrage of assaults in recent days that has shattered months of relative calm in Sudan’s capital, three years into its civil war. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.

Neither country immediately commented on the allegations made late on Monday. Sudan has often accused the UAE of supporting Rapid Support ‌Forces (RSF) paramilitaries, a charge the Gulf state has denied, and had accused Ethiopia of getting involved in the conflict earlier this year.

Strikes launched since Friday have hit military targets and civilian areas in a city where people, ministries and international agencies had started returning since the army retook control there in March 2025, residents told Reuters.

Witnesses said Monday’s drone attacks targeted Khartoum International Airport - where some of the earliest fighting erupted between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023 - and which received its first international flight in three years last week.

The airport’s gradual reopening last year marked a key step in efforts to restore normal life in Khartoum.

Army spokesman Brigadier General Asim ⁠Awad Abdelwahab said the government had evidence that attacks on several states beginning on March 1 had taken off from Ethiopia’s Bahir Dar airport, referring to information from ‌a drone downed in mid-March that he said linked it to the airport and to the United Arab Emirates. He said the army linked another drone launched from the same airport to the Monday attack.