Sudan claims it has evidence that four drone attacks have been launched from Ethiopia with UAE-supplied drones.

Sudan has accused Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of playing a role in the recent drone attacks on the country, warning that the aggression will not be “met with silence”.

On Tuesday, the Sudanese government recalled its ambassador from Ethiopia, accusing Addis Ababa and the UAE of being behind an attack on Khartoum International Airport that forced authorities to suspend operations for three days.

Sudan’s military said it has evidence that four drone attacks have been launched from neighbouring Ethiopia since early March, alleging that the UAE supplied the drones.

In a statement, Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and accused Sudan of fomenting unrest by funding rebels in the Tigray region – the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). It added that it had not publicised the alleged violations of its territorial integrity because the two countries share a “historic and enduring bond of friendship”.

A senior official with the TPLF, Amanuel Assefa, dismissed the federal government’s remarks and told the AFP news agency: “We have no connections with the Sudanese authorities.” He said the government was blaming everyone “but themselves for their failures”.

The UAE has not yet reacted, but has repeatedly denied funding the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group that has been at war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for more than three years.

Last week, Khartoum International Airport received its first flight since the conflict began, marking a period of relative calm in the capital – now shattered by a renewed wave of drone attacks.

The government’s SAF retook the city from the RSF in March last year. In recent months, more than 1.8 million people have returned to Khartoum, but much of the city remains without electricity or basic services.

Drones have become a central component of the war, which the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

More than 150,000 people are estimated to have been killed, while about 14 million have been displaced, according to the UN.

The war began in April 2023 after a power struggle erupted between the army and the RSF.

‘Very dangerous dynamic’

Alan Boswell, the Horn of Africa director at the International Crisis Group (ICG), warned that Sudan’s accusation against Ethiopia marks a dangerous new phase in a conflict already destabilising the region.

“Both countries … are facing massive internal challenges, and essentially, both sides now see the other as supporting their armed opponents,” Boswell told Al Jazeera.

That suspicion of each other, he argued, “creates a very dangerous dynamic … and risks making their own internal challenges much worse”.

Moreover, Boswell linked the timing of the attacks directly to the ongoing civil war in Sudan.

“The main trigger really is just that this war in Sudan just continues to escalate with no clear off-ramp, and it is really starting to tear apart the Horn of Africa region,” he said, pointing to outside backers on both sides, including the UAE.

Abu Dhabi has repeatedly denied involvement in the conflict.

Without foreign support, Boswell argued, “both warring parties in Sudan would have run out of munitions very early in this war”. He also warned of an “unprecedented” level of regional interference.

EXPLAINER

If confirmed, it would be Iran’s first attack on the UAE since the US-Iran ceasefire took effect on April 8.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has accused Iran of launching “a barrage” of missiles and drones at the port of the eastern emirate of Fujairah, injuring three Indian nationals and setting an oil refinery at the Fujairah Petroleum Industries Zone ablaze.

The UAE’s Ministry of Defence said its air defences had “engaged” 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and four drones launched from Iran over the course of the day on Monday.

Iran’s state television reported that military officials laid the blame for the attacks on the “US military’s adventurism”.

Where is Fujairah?

Fujairah is one of the seven emirates of the UAE. It is home to a multipurpose deep-sea port, located on the Gulf of Oman.

The port lies about 70 nautical miles (roughly 130km, or 80 miles) outside the Strait of Hormuz and about 130km east of Dubai.

This is not the first time Fujairah has been targeted. On April 6, authorities in the emirate said they were responding to an “incident” in which a drone approached from Iran towards the building of the telecommunications company, du. They did not say whether the drone struck, and did not report any injuries.

What is the significance of the Fujairah port?

The port serves multiple purposes. It is the terminus of the Habshan-Fujairah oil pipeline, also known as the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline (ADCOP).

This 380km (235-mile) pipeline runs from Habshan, an oil and gasfield in southwestern Abu Dhabi, to the port of Fujairah.

The pipeline, which became operational in 2012, can carry about 1.5 million barrels of oil per day (bpd).

This is significant because it makes the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline one of the key routes in the Middle East, which producers may turn to as they assess ways to offset the disruption caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

On Monday, US President Trump said US forces would begin escorting stranded ships through the Strait of Hormuz, signalling a direct challenge to Iran’s closure of the strategic waterway, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies are shipped in peacetime. Iran’s threats to attack ships have kept the strait effectively closed since US-Israeli attacks started on February 28.

The closure of the vital maritime corridor has sent oil and fertiliser prices surging around the world and prompted fears of a global recession and food crisis.

It is unclear how much oil is now being transported through the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline. However, oil exports from Fujairah do appear to have risen in the past month since the closure of the strait, averaging 1.62 million bpd in March compared with 1.17 million bpd in February, Kpler analyst Johannes Rauball told the Reuters news agency.

Besides this, the Fujairah port is a major global hub for ship refuelling and also provides general cargo, dry bulk and container services.

What has the response been to the attack on the UAE?

After a day of reported drone and missile attacks inside the UAE, including the one that caused a fire in an oil refinery at Fujairah, the UAE said Iranian attacks marked a serious escalation in tensions in the Gulf and it reserved the right to respond.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in an X post on Tuesday that the attack was “unacceptable”.

“We call for immediate cessation of these hostilities and the targeting of civilian infrastructure and innocent civilians,” the ministry said.

Iranian authorities released a map of what they said was an expanded maritime area now under Iranian control, stretching beyond the strait to include lengthy sections of the UAE coastline, sparking fears of further regional conflict.

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