Ignoring U.S. Calls for Peace, Egypt Delivered Drones to Sudan’s Military
Bayraktar drone deliveries are latest instance of regional powers meddling in Sudan’s civil war
Egypt has delivered drones to the Sudanese military to bolster its fight against a powerful warlord, security officials said, a potentially dangerous escalation of a conflict that is drawing in more regional players.
The Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones, which have helped alter the balance of power in a series of recent conflicts—including in Ukraine—were delivered to Sudan’s military last month, according to the officials. Members of the Sudanese military also trained in neighboring Egypt to improve their handling of the unmanned aerial vehicles, the officials said.
Spokesmen for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and the Sudanese military didn’t return requests for comment. Egyptian officials have previously called for an end to the fighting.
The delivery of the drones is the latest instance of regional powers getting involved in the civil war in Sudan, a country long coveted for its strategic location on the Red Sea, its access to the Nile River and vast gold reserves. The Wall Street Journal reported in August that the United Arab Emirates was sending weapons to the Rapid Support Forces, a militia led by Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo that is battling Sudan’s military for control of the East African nation.
The shipments have raised the risk of widening the conflict and are undermining efforts by the U.S., the United Nations and others to mediate a cease-fire in Sudan.
Egypt’s involvement also highlights Cairo’s expanding, and increasingly complex, role as a power player in the Middle East and North Africa when the region is experiencing new violence and upheaval.
The government of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi has been a close U.S. ally, largely for its efforts to mediate between Israel and Palestinian authorities—a task it has once again assumed following the deadly attacks by Hamas militants this weekend. But its supply of drones to the Sudanese military—similar to Egypt’s support to a rebel commander in Libya—runs counter to calls by the Biden administration for other countries to stay out of the Sudanese war.
At least 9,000 people have been killed since fighting broke out in April between Sudan’s military and Dagalo’s RSF, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a nonprofit. The war has forced some 5.5 million people—about one in nine Sudanese—out of their homes and triggered a humanitarian catastrophe, with nearly half of the country’s citizens now in need of food and other aid.
Cairo has long backed the Sudanese military led by Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto head of state. Burhan has been a key ally of Egypt in its dispute with Ethiopia, which is expanding a giant dam that the Sisi government says threatens to choke off the waters that run into the Nile. Egypt already sent warplanes to back the Sudanese military in the early days of the war.
Burhan and Dagalo worked together in 2019 to oust Sudan’s longtime dictator, Omar al-Bashir, and again in 2021 to topple a civilian transitional government.
The Egyptian drone shipment, requested by Burhan, came as the Sudanese military was losing ground to Dagalo’s forces following the U.A.E. weapon supplies. Abu Dhabi is betting on Dagalo to help protect Emirati interests in Sudan, which include swaths of farmland and a stake in a planned $6 billion port on the Red Sea.
Burhan visited Egypt in late August, the general’s first known trip abroad since the fighting began. Days later, the Egyptian military delivered the drones to a military base in Sudan’s north, according to officers in the Sudanese military.
These drones have since been deployed to several air bases from where they have been used to launch strikes against the RSF, targeting its weapons warehouses, military vehicles and bases.
Military airstrikes have inflicted significant damage on RSF facilities and weapon warehouses around Khartoum since late August, according to ACLED, the nonprofit. Last month, the Sudanese military also regained control of Zalingei, the capital of Central Darfur, which had been captured by the RSF in early August. The drone strikes have also helped the military to successfully repulse a series of attacks on two large bases in the capital, Khartoum, inflicting heavy losses on the RSF, according to witnesses and humanitarian officials.
But some drone attacks have hit civilian targets, including a Sept. 10 strike that killed 40 people at an open market, according to local human-rights activists. More air force troops are being trained in Egypt to improve operational capacity and avoid such errors, Sudanese officials said.
The RSF has reacted to the drone attacks with artillery shelling and by obstructing food and medical supplies flowing to the military’s strongholds, according to witnesses.