An Ilyushin Il-76TD cargo aircraft, registration EW-78826, at Frankfurt Airport, September 2006. Photo: Arcturus / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 [file photo]
A flight tracker says a cargo jet from the United Arab Emirates landed in Addis Ababa this weekend, then flew on to Harar Meda air base in Bishoftu. Ethiopia and the UAE have not commented.
AfriMEOSINT, an account on X that tracks military flights, said the plane was an Il-76TD registered UR-BXQ and run by Maximus Air. It said the jet left Sharjah in the UAE, landed at Bole International Airport, and then made the short hop to Harar Meda, the main base of the Ethiopian Air Force, southeast of the capital. Flight tracking data shows where a plane goes. It does not show what it carries.
AfriMEOSINT said on Saturday, November 7, that credible reports indicated UAE-linked Il-76 jets had landed at Nekemte in recent weeks. The same post said Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones were deployed there. A November 7 post said a UAE-linked Il-76 had been spotted at Asosa, near Sudan, on November 6. Mereja Media could not independently confirm these claims. Flight routes alone do not establish cargo, sponsorship or a connection to the drone allegations.
The reports come as tension grows between Ethiopia and Sudan. Sudan has accused Ethiopia of allowing drones to be launched from its soil against Sudanese power stations. Sudan shut Ethiopia’s consulate in Gedaref, a Sudanese government source said, after Ethiopia ordered six Sudanese consulate staff in Asosa to leave, according to a senior Ethiopian official quoted by Reuters. Ethiopia’s government has not publicly addressed the flight reports.
Mereja Media has followed these flights since October. We reported on October 19 that satellite images showed three Il-76 cargo planes at Harar Meda, on October 21 that a UAE cargo plane reached Asosa, and on November 4 that new footage put UAE linked cargo jets on Bole’s apron. On November 5 we reported that Sudan shut Ethiopia’s consulate in Gedaref.