Claims have been made that Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have supplied drones to the opposing parties in the 14-month battle that has ravaged Sudan, in violation of a UN arms embargo. To support the claim, we examine the supporting data.
Soldiers from the Sudanese government were rejoicing on a historic military victory early on March 12, 2024. At last, they had taken back Khartoum, the capital, and the offices of the official broadcaster.
Eleven months earlier, at the start of the civil war, the building and the majority of the city had been seized by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Footage of this army victory made headlines because it showed that Iranian-made drones were used to execute the strike.
The director of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Observatory, Suliman Baldo, claims that the army depended on the air force in the early phases of the conflict.
“The military discovered that all of their preferred forces were under siege, and they lacked combat troops on the ground,” he said.
While the army remained in the air, the RSF continued to hold ground control over most of Khartoum and Darfur in western Sudan.
A video of an army drone being shot down by the RSF went viral on Twitter early in January 2024.
Drone specialist Wim Zwijnenburg, who leads the Humanitarian Disarmament Project at Dutch peace organization PAX, claims that the drone’s engine, tail, and wreckage were similar to those of an Iranian-made drone known as the Mohajer-6.
