Sudan Takes Ethiopia to UN Over Deadly Drone Strikes

The government in Khartoum has taken formal diplomatic action regarding the ongoing sudan ethiopia conflict, lodging complaints against its neighbor with both the United Nations Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council following a wave of aerial assaults. In an official declaration issued late Sunday, the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs alleged that the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary faction utilized Ethiopian territory to execute hostile operations targeting civilian infrastructure and electrical power facilities inside Sudan. The ministry asserted that these military engagements place Ethiopia in direct violation of international law.

This diplomatic escalation coincides with the release of a detailed report from the Transitional Sovereignty Council, which documents 70 separate assaults occurring between February 15 and October 27. According to the findings, these incidents involved 187 one-way attack drones launched from locations within western and northwestern Ethiopia, specifically identifying launch points near Asosa Airport, the Kurmuk-Gizen border area, and the Bahir Dar airbase in the Amhara region. The documentation states that the strikes resulted in the deaths or injuries of 484 civilians, alongside 176 military personnel killed and 200 soldiers wounded.

Escalating Casualties

The reported frequency of these operations increased notably during the preceding month, which saw 28 separate strikes executed using 97 drones. Among the incidents cited is an October 9 assault that struck displaced families in Wad el-Mahi within the Blue Nile region, resulting in the deaths of 30 civilians—including 26 women and four children—and leaving 100 others wounded. The Sudanese military has consistently claimed that Ethiopia provides support to the paramilitary forces involved in the civil war that began in April 2023, whereas Ethiopia has previously accused Khartoum of harboring rebels linked to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Armed drone strikes originating from Ethiopian territory have killed and wounded hundreds of civilians in Sudan.

In a related development, a spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep concern regarding the widening impact of aerial bombardments across the region. The secretary-general strongly condemned the intensification of drone warfare by participants in the Sudanese conflict, emphasizing the severe humanitarian toll on non-combatants and noting that such actions constitute clear violations of international humanitarian law.

Why it matters

These formal complaints escalate diplomatic tensions between two major East African nations, shifting the domestic civil conflict into an international arena involving the United Nations and the African Union. The formal allegations regarding cross-border launch sites threaten to destabilize regional relations further and increase scrutiny on border security in the Horn of Africa.