Sudan's army-aligned government has taken its accusation that drones are being launched from Ethiopia to foreign diplomats, on the same day a strike set fire to a power station and an oil pumping station in Red Sea state.
Sudan's foreign ministry on Saturday 31 October briefed foreign diplomats in Port Sudan on drone attacks it says are being launched from Ethiopian territory, urging the international community to act, Sudan Tribune reported. The briefing came two days after a defence ministry press conference at which the army displayed models of intercepted drones and flight data.
Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ambassador Muawiya Osman told the diplomats that they must take responsibility and confront what he called a "brutal aggression" from Ethiopia. A ministry official presented wreckage of downed drones collected with the security services, according to Sudan Tribune. Officials described the campaign as a proxy war waged by Ethiopia on behalf of regional powers, chiefly the United Arab Emirates, using the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
"The Assosa base in Ethiopia has become a base for supplying the militia with weapons and equipment and facilitating the passage of foreign mercenary fighters," the official said. Osman said Sudan was pursuing diplomatic avenues to ease tensions with Addis Ababa but retained its full right under international law to respond, a point also carried by CNN Arabic, citing the Sudan News Agency (SUNA).
Haya hit for the second time in three days
On the same day, drones struck the Haya electrical transformer station and a nearby oil pumping station in Red Sea state, setting several crude oil tanks on fire, Sudan Tribune reported, attributing the attack to the RSF. It was the second strike on energy infrastructure in Haya in three days. The pumping station lies on the pipeline that carries crude, including South Sudan's exports, to the Bashayer terminal on the Red Sea.
The Haya power station was close to completion and was intended to ease power shortages in Port Sudan, according to the same report. It is part of a ten-plant programme funded by the Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. The government says more than 13 electricity distribution stations in Gedaref, Khartoum, Al Jazirah, Red Sea, Sennar, White Nile and South Kordofan states have been severely damaged in the latest wave of strikes.
Claims not independently verified
At the earlier 29 October briefing, officials said 162 drone attacks launched from Ethiopia had killed more than 400 civilians and 102 military personnel, naming Assosa and Bahir Dar among the launch sites, Radio Dabanga reported. Dabanga noted that the figures had not been independently verified and that Ethiopia has previously rejected allegations that it supports the RSF as unfounded.
The drone war cuts both ways. The RSF-led Tasis authorities accuse the army of deadly drone strikes in areas they administer, including the 26 October strike on a market in Nyala, South Darfur, which AFP reported killed at least 102 people.
Photo: Port Sudan's harbour and city centre, 2008. Bertramz, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.