Sudanese official renews accusations against Ethiopia over paramilitaries near border
September 7, 2026 (KURMUK) – A local Sudanese official on Monday repeated accusations that neighbouring Ethiopia is harbouring and training fighters for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), alleging that foreign fighters had arrived at an Ethiopian camp near the border.
Abdelati Mohamed El Faki, commissioner of Kurmuk County in Sudan’s southeastern Blue Nile region, alleged that planeloads of fighters arrived on Sunday at the Fana camp in Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region after landing at Assosa airport.
El Faki claimed the airlift was facilitated by the United Arab Emirates. He alleged on September 3 that four camps inside Ethiopia were being used to train RSF personnel and foreign recruits, as well as to stage logistics and drone flights.
The claims could not be independently verified.
Sudan’s army-aligned government has repeatedly accused Ethiopia and the UAE of providing military assistance to the RSF in the country’s grinding civil war. Addis Ababa and Abu Dhabi have consistently denied involvement.
Concerns over cross-border military support were also highlighted in an August 28 report by the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at the Yale School of Public Health. The laboratory identified satellite evidence of a major escalation in military equipment and logistical infrastructure at an Ethiopian National Defence Force base in Assosa, associated with RSF activity.
According to the Yale analysis, the arrival of roughly 100 light technical vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, and dozens of shipping containers indicated the assembly of a brigade-sized force capable of transporting 750 to 1,000 personnel. The lab warned that the staging of forces and supplies near the border posed an imminent threat to Blue Nile State, potentially targeting the regional capital of Ed Damazin.
El Faki warned that the Fana base sits close to Kurmuk and posed a direct security threat, calling on regional bodies and the international community to prevent Sudanese border areas from being destabilised by cross-border logistics.
The accusations come amid escalating fighting along the Blue Nile front, where the RSF and allied forces from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM-N) have pushed into territory across the Geissan and Kurmuk localities.
In response, the Sudanese Armed Forces moved reinforcements into Blue Nile from White Nile, Al Jazirah, Gedaref, and Sennar states, military sources said.
The military command also established a dedicated joint operations centre for the Blue Nile front, appointing Major General Walid Agabna to lead it.
Agabna, a veteran officer who previously led the Red Sea Military Area and served with Sudanese contingents in Yemen, arrived in Ed Damazin on Sunday to take charge of operations.