Sudan Takes Ethiopia Drone Claims to the UN: Weighing the Evidence

KHARTOUM, Nov. 2, 2026 — Sudan has filed complaints against Ethiopia with the UN Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, accusing its neighbor of letting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launch drone attacks from Ethiopian soil. In a statement late Sunday, Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said the RSF was using Ethiopian territory for “brazen aggression” against “civilian sites and power stations,” and that the attacks place “Ethiopia before international law,” Al Jazeera reported.

The complaints came with a report from the army-led Transitional Sovereignty Council that counts 70 attacks between Feb. 15 and Oct. 27 involving 187 one-way attack drones. It says the strikes killed or wounded 484 civilians, killed 176 soldiers and wounded 200 more. It names three launch areas: Asosa Airport in western Ethiopia, the Kurmuk-Gizen border zone, and Bahir Dar air base in the Amhara region. There was no immediate response from Addis Ababa, Anadolu reported, but Ethiopia has previously denied the accusations and said it respects Sudan’s sovereignty.

A sharp jump in October

The report says 28 of the 70 attacks, using 97 drones, came in October alone. Subtracting those from the totals gives Peter’s World’s own breakdown of the earlier period. The October figures run only to Oct. 27, so the monthly rate is, if anything, understated.

On Sudan’s numbers, more drones were launched in October than in the previous seven and a half months combined. The deadliest single strike it lists hit Wad el-Mahi in Blue Nile state on Oct. 9, killing 30 civilians, among them 26 women and four children, and wounding 100.

What Sudan claims, and what has been checked

The full report, titled “Launched From Ethiopia,” sets out forensic and geospatial evidence, according to Sudan Now, which notes the claims have not been independently verified. The table below sorts the main claims by how far outside sources have tested them.

The Asosa claim is the one with the most outside backing. In an April 8 report, Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab said it “concluded with high confidence that there is activity consistent with military assistance to the Rapid Support Forces” at an Ethiopian army base in Asosa town between Dec. 29 and March 29. A follow-up in August counted about 100 newly present light technical vehicles and 15 vehicles consistent with armored personnel carriers, enough to carry 750 to 1,000 personnel.

Timeline of the dispute

• March 1: Attacks from Bahir Dar began on this date, according to a Sudanese army spokesperson quoted by Al-Monitor.
• May 4–5: After a strike on Khartoum International Airport, Sudan recalls its ambassador to Ethiopia, and Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry calls the launch claims “baseless.”
• Sept. 20: The drone whose flight computer forms Sudan’s key exhibit is brought down near Ed Damazin.
• Oct. 26–27: Sudan reports that drone strikes knocked out six power stations.
• Oct. 31: The UN secretary-general condemns escalating drone attacks in Sudan.
• Nov. 1: Sudan’s Foreign Ministry announces the complaints to the UN and the AU.

Analysis: a war widening, with both sides flying drones

If the Ethiopian launch claims hold, Sudan’s war would no longer be contained by its borders, and a second state would be directly implicated in attacks on Sudanese civilians. By taking the case to the Security Council and the AU, Khartoum has moved the dispute from bilateral protest into formal diplomacy. It has also reserved its rights under Article 51 of the UN Charter, the self-defense clause, according to Sudan Now. That reservation formally leaves open a military response.

Ethiopia has pushed back with its own charge. In May, its Foreign Ministry said it “has exercised restraint and refrained from publicizing the grave violations of its territorial integrity,” and accused Sudan’s army of arming fighters from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. With each government accusing the other of backing armed rebels, the dispute now touches two civil conflicts at once.

The UN record cuts against any one-sided story. The secretary-general’s Oct. 31 statement condemned drone attacks “by the parties to the conflict” and said drones “have killed hundreds of civilians, including women and children.” Washington has made the same point. The State Department said Sept. 22 that neither the army nor the RSF had committed to a truce and that both had “redoubled combat operations and drone strikes which kill civilians.” Sudan’s offer to hand over wreckage and flight data for independent examination is the key test. A UN or AU technical review could confirm or knock down the launch-site claims in a way neither government’s statements can.

What to watch

• Whether the Security Council takes up the complaint or asks for a technical examination of the recovered drones.
• Any formal response from Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry to the new report.
• Further strikes on Sudan’s power grid and on Blue Nile towns near the border.

Sources

• Al Jazeera: Sudan files complaints against Ethiopia with UN over deadly drone spree (Nov. 2, 2026)
• Anadolu: Sudan files complaints against Ethiopia with UN, African Union (Nov. 2, 2026)
• Sudan Now: Sudan says 70 drone attacks were launched from Ethiopia
• Yale Humanitarian Research Lab: Asosa, Ethiopia report (April 8, 2026)
• Yale Humanitarian Research Lab: Asosa follow-up (August 2026)
• Al-Monitor: Ethiopia rejects Sudan’s strike claims (May 5, 2026)
• UN in Sudan: Statement by the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on escalating drone attacks (Oct. 31, 2026)
• U.S. Department of State: Efforts to Achieve Peace in Sudan (Sept. 22, 2026)

Additional sources

• U.S. Department of State: Marking three years of conflict in Sudan with sanctions and appeal for humanitarian truce, April 17, 2026 (over 150,000 killed and more than 14 million displaced since April 2023)
• U.S. Department of State: Joint statement of G7 foreign ministers on El-Obeid, Sudan, July 16, 2026 (calls for the Darfur arms embargo to be extended to all of Sudan)

Related coverage

• What Is the RSF in Sudan? Origins, Backers and the Genocide Finding
• Africa Weekly Roundup: Sudan Grid War, Ethiopia, Congo and Ebola
• Sudan Peace Talks in Geneva: Mediators Say No Military Solution