A fire burns at night in Damazin, capital of Sudan’s Blue Nile State, in a photo shared on X on November 4, 2026 by Huzaifa Mukhtar, who said a drone fell on a house in the Al Zuhur neighborhood on Tuesday evening, killing a woman. Mereja Media could not verify the image. Photo: @HMuktar85 via X
Sudan closed Ethiopia’s consulate in Gedaref on Wednesday and gave its diplomats 48 hours to leave, a Sudanese government source said, after Ethiopia reportedly expelled six Sudanese consulate staff from Asosa.
A Sudanese government source told Asharq Bloomberg that Khartoum had decided to close the Ethiopian consulate in Gedaref, in eastern Sudan, and that the move was a direct response to Ethiopia’s closure of the Sudanese consulate in Asosa, the capital of Ethiopia’s Benishangul Gumuz region near the border. The news spread quickly among Sudanese accounts on X, many of them supporters of the army, with some calling it an eye for an eye.
Earlier on Wednesday, a senior Ethiopian official told Reuters that Ethiopia had ordered six staff members of the Sudanese consulate in Asosa to leave the country within 48 hours, without giving a reason, BBC Amharic reported. A Sudanese official told the Associated Press that the staff departed on Tuesday evening. The Sudanese outlet Ayin said the order also covered Sudan’s military and security attachés and called it Addis Ababa’s first response to Sudan’s complaint to the United Nations Security Council over drones it says are launched from Ethiopian territory. BBC Amharic said it asked the spokesperson of Ethiopia’s foreign ministry for comment and got no immediate reply, and that Reuters had asked the spokesperson of the prime minister’s office, also without an immediate answer.
Sudan’s foreign minister, Mohieddin Salem, called on Ethiopia to reconsider its decision and warned against further escalation, in an interview with the Sudanese site Sudan Horizon. Sudan has accused Ethiopia of letting the Rapid Support Forces use its territory to launch drones at Sudanese power stations and other targets, and on Sunday it took its case to the UN Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council, as Mereja Media reported. Ethiopia denies supporting the RSF and in turn accuses Sudan of backing rebels in Tigray, which Sudan denies, BBC Amharic noted.
The RSF side welcomed Ethiopia’s step. The foreign ministry of Tasis, the RSF led alliance that has declared a rival government in Nyala, said in a statement shared on X that it welcomed the closure of what it called the consulate of the “Port Sudan authority” in Asosa, and said the move served the interests of both peoples.
Ethiopian voices online defended the expulsion. “When you are accused at the UN on one sided claims, you have every right to decide who works on your border,” wrote Yonas Ethio (@yonast98), who noted that a Sudanese adviser had warned Ethiopia of confrontation on Al Arabiya while telling Reuters that Khartoum was making “every possible effort to avoid an open war with Ethiopia.” He called for an independent team to check both countries’ accusations on both sides of the border.
On the ground, reports suggest the war in Blue Nile State is moving closer to Damazin, the state capital. The RSF and its ally, the al Hilu faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North, took Sali, about 80 miles south of Damazin, on November 3, according to the Critical Threats project of the American Enterprise Institute, and the army said it had repositioned its forces out of the town. On Wednesday the RSF claimed the capture of the village of Kayli, and the researcher Thomas van Linge wrote on X that the RSF led coalition now dominated almost the entire stretch of the Sudan and Ethiopia border in Blue Nile.
Local groups said Damazin itself came under drone attack for a second night. The Sennar Resistance Committees said a drone hit a house in the Al Zuhur neighborhood on Tuesday evening, killing a woman and wounding another, and that another strike on a house in the Al Muallimin neighborhood killed a mother and her child, the Sudanese outlet Atar reported. The Darfur Network for Human Rights said a 30 year old mother of three was killed on Tuesday morning and quoted an eyewitness who counted more than 17 drone strikes on Al Zuhur. The Blue Nile regional government condemned the attacks, blamed the RSF and urged people not to spread rumors. A Sudanese military source told the outlet Sudanese Echo that air defenses intercepted drones and that Damazin “remains under the control” of the army.
Many Sudanese believe they know where the drones come from. “The drones of the Emirati enemy now take one route every day,” wrote Wael Jamal (@moon_wolf999), “they enter from Ethiopia through Blue Nile and Sennar.” Sudan’s army said on Tuesday that it had shot down a hostile drone over Blue Nile that had entered Sudanese airspace from Ethiopia, the open source flight tracker AfriMEOSINT noted. On Wednesday, AfriMEOSINT reported that an Ilyushin Il 76 cargo plane operated by Vise Air had flown from Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates to Ethiopia, with Asosa its likely destination. Mereja Media could not independently verify where any of the drones were launched.
Mereja Media asked Ethiopia’s Government Communication Service on Wednesday morning about the Sudanese army’s claim that a drone from Ethiopia was shot down over Blue Nile, and had not received a reply at the time of writing. Mereja Media asked the spokesperson of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment at 6:13 PM on Nov 4 and had received no reply by publication. This story will be updated with any response.
The UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Denise Brown, warned on Wednesday that drone attacks on power and fuel infrastructure had left hundreds of aid trucks stranded and patients cut off from dialysis, Sudanese Echo reported.
Sources
- BBC Amharic, Ethiopia orders Sudanese diplomats out within 48 hours
- Ayin Network (@AyinSudan) on X
- Almohagig (@Almohagigsd1) on X, citing Asharq Bloomberg
- Sudan Horizon (@SudanHorizon) on X, Mohieddin Salem
- Tasis foreign ministry statement as shared by @Insight_X24 on X
- Yonas Ethio (@yonast98) on X
- Critical Threats (@criticalthreats) on X
- Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) on X
- Atar Network (@atarnetwork) on X
- Darfur Network for Human Rights (@DNforHR) on X
- Tayba TV (@TaybaSD) on X, Blue Nile government statement
- Sudanese Echo (@SudaneseEcho) on X, military source
- Sudanese Echo (@SudaneseEcho) on X, Denise Brown
- Wael Jamal (@moon_wolf999) on X
- Huzaifa Mukhtar (@HMuktar85) on X
- AfriMEOSINT (@AfriMEOSINT) on X, drone shot down over Blue Nile
- AfriMEOSINT (@AfriMEOSINT) on X, Il 76 flights
- Mereja Media, Kassala power cuts and Sudan’s UN complaint
- Mereja Media, Sudan says drones were launched from Ethiopia
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