By providing drones to the warring sides in the 14-month conflict that has devastated Sudan, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been accused of breaking a UN arms embargo. We examine the supporting evidence for the claim. Sudanese government soldiers were celebrating an unprecedented military advance early on March 12, 2024.
In the capital, Khartoum, they had finally regained control of the state broadcaster’s headquarters. The building, like the majority of the city, had been taken over by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) eleven months before the civil war began. What was eminent about this tactical triumph for the military was that recordings showed the assault was done with the assistance of Iranian-made drones. According to Suliman Baldo, director of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Observatory, the army relied on the air force at first.
According to him, “The armed forces found all their preferential forces besieged, and they had no fighting forces on the ground.” While the army maintained its presence in the sky, the RSF maintained ground control of the majority of Khartoum and Darfur in the west of Sudan. By early January 2024, a video arose on Twitter of a military robot shot somewhere near the RSF.
A drone expert and head of the Humanitarian Disarmament Project at the Dutch peace organization PAX, Wim Zwijnenburg, said that its engine, tail, and wreckage reminded him of the Iranian-made Mohajer-6 drone.
The Mohajer-6 is 6.5 meters long, can fly up to 1,240 miles (2,000 km), and uses guided freefall munitions for airstrikes. Mr Zwijnenburg distinguished one more rendition of the robot in a satellite picture of the military’s Watercourse Seidna army installation, north of Khartoum, required three days after the fact.
He states, “These drones are very effective because they can accurately identify targets with minimal training.” A video of another drone that was shot down by the RSF surfaced three weeks after the Mohajer-6 was shot down.
Mr. Zwijnenburg compared this to the Zajil-3, which is a locally produced version of the Iranian Ababil-3 drone. Sudan has utilized the Zajil-3 drones for a number of years. However, the BBC and PAX observed that January was their first use in this war. Mr. Zwijnenburg discovered yet another variant of the Zajil-3 in a satellite image of Wadi Seidna in March.
He says, “[It is] an indication of active Iranian support for the Sudanese army” despite the fact that the ruling council of Sudan has denied purchasing weapons from Iran. Mr. Zwijnenburg adds, “If these drones are equipped with guided munitions, it means Iran supplied them because those munitions are not produced in Sudan.” A passenger Boeing 747 belonging to Iranian cargo carrier Qeshm Fars Air took off from Iran’s Bandar Abbas airport at the beginning of December and made its way toward the Red Sea before disappearing from radar.
A plane of the same make was captured by satellites at Port Sudan airport in the east of the country, where officials from the Sudanese army are based, hours later. This flight was rehashed multiple times for the rest of January, that very month the utilization of Iranian robots was reported. Due to numerous allegations that it transported fighters and weapons throughout the Middle East, particularly to Syria, one of Iran’s main allies, Qeshm Fars Air, faces US sanctions.
Prior to the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran in 2016, when Sudan sided with Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Iran had a long history of military cooperation. Mr. Baldo, who works for the Sudan Transparency and Policy Observatory, claims that “many Sudanese weapons were locally made versions of Iranian models.” The Sudanese government has restored relations with Tehran ever since the conflict began. Mr. Baldo asserts that each side has its own goals.
“Iran is trying to establish itself in the region. He adds, “They will absolutely provide more advanced and numerous drones if they find geostrategic concessions.” To inquire about the claims that Iranian drones are being used in the conflict, the BBC contacted the Sudanese army, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Qeshm Fars Air. However, vice-president of the Sovereign Council of Sudan Malik Agar stated in an interview with the BBC, “We do not receive any weapons from any party.” The black market for weapons is now known as the gray market.”
Meanwhile, early in the war, there was evidence that the RSF used commercial quadcopter drones that could drop 120mm mortar shells. The army appears to have shot down many of these drones, as evidenced by social media images and video. Amnesty International expert Brian Castner blames the United Arab Emirates.
He states, “The UAE has supplied the same drones to its allies in other conflict areas like Ethiopia and Yemen.” Experts in aviation tracking observed a civilian aircraft air bridge that was allegedly transporting weapons from the UAE to the RSF, an allegation that the UAE denies, according to a UN report that was presented earlier this year to the Security Council.
The route begins at the airport of Abu Dhabi and travels through the airports of Nairobi and Kampala before reaching the airport of Amdjarass in Chad, a few kilometers from the western border of Sudan and Darfur, where the RSF maintains its stronghold. The UN report also cites military groups and local sources who say that weapons-carrying vehicles unload planes several times a week at Amdjarass airport before heading to Darfur and the rest of Sudan. “The UAE likewise has monetary interests in Sudan and is looking for a traction on the Red Ocean,” says Mr Baldo.
The United Arab Emirates has repeatedly claimed that these flights were delivering humanitarian aid rather than weapons. A government official tells the BBC in a statement that the United Arab Emirates is committed to seeking “a peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict.” The RSF has not answered the BBC’s solicitation for input. A 2005 UN Security Council resolution prohibiting the supply of weapons to the Sudanese government and armed factions in Darfur is in violation of the drones that both sides in the civil war are alleged to have imported.
Mr. Castner asserts, “The Security Council must take responsibility and consider the state of Sudan, the approaching famine, the number of people killed and displaced, and the immediate enforcement of a comprehensive arms embargo on all of Sudan.” The situation on the ground has somewhat improved since drones began flying over Sudan. The siege that was placed on the soldiers of the Sudanese army has been broken in several places.
Additionally, the RSF has left some neighborhoods west of the capital. Mr. Baldo claims that the Iranian drones are to blame for this shift. According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled), at least 16,650 civilians have been killed in more than a year of war. More people have been displaced from their homes than in any other conflict, according to the United Nations. One person who has now fled to Egypt is Abdullah Makkawi. He claims that the RSF’s drones attacked him while he was still in southern Khartoum in July. He says he narrowly escaped death. “We ran for cover in a room with a concrete roof after I rushed into the house…
He claims, “My mother, four siblings, and I hid under the beds.” They heard the sound of a drone shell falling on the next room, which had a wooden roof, according to Mr. Makkawi. We would all have died if we had been in the other room.
He declares, “A miracle saved us.” The conflict began to spread to new areas outside of the capital at the beginning of 2024. In northern, eastern, and central Sudan, for the first time, civilian deaths caused by drone attacks were reported.
Mr. Makkawi left his family in Port Sudan because he thought it was safe before fleeing to Egypt. However, he now fears that drones might also reach them there. The people of Sudan are sick of the war. The end of the war is all we want. It will end if nations stop providing weapons support to both sides.
