{"id":838050,"date":"2026-10-21T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T01:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=838050"},"modified":"2026-10-21T09:41:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T13:41:35","slug":"open-source-tracker-says-cargo-plane-from-uae-reached-asosa-near-sudan-border-days-after-ethiopian-govt-rejected-sudans-un-accusations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/838050","title":{"rendered":"Open-source tracker says cargo plane from UAE reached Asosa near Sudan border, days after Ethiopian Gov’t rejected Sudan’s UN accusations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Satellite<\/figure>\n

A satellite image posted on October 20, 2026, which AfriMEOSINT said shows an Il-76TD cargo aircraft at Asosa Airport in Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia. Image: AfriMEOSINT via X<\/em><\/p>\n

An open-source intelligence account said on Tuesday that a cargo plane from the United Arab Emirates landed at Asosa, near the Sudan border, days after Ethiopia rejected Sudan's accusations at the UN Security Council.<\/p>\n

AfriMEOSINT, an open-source intelligence account on X, posted a satellite image on Tuesday evening and wrote that "an Ilyushin Il-76TD cargo aircraft was seen at Asosa Airport in Ethiopia's Benishangul region, near Sudan." The account said the plane "arrived from the UAE, likely via Bole Airport or Harar Meda Airbase," and it wrote, "Despite the conflict within Ethiopia, supplies for the RSF still pass through the country," a reference to Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Mereja could not independently confirm what the aircraft carried.<\/p>\n

In a series of posts since Monday, the same account tracked what it called "the suspicious UAE airlift to Ethiopia," which it said "is expanding significantly." It wrote that a Pecotox-Air Boeing 747-409F, registration ER-MDR, flew from Al Reef Airbase to Al Ain Airport in the UAE on Tuesday before continuing to Bole Airport in Addis Ababa, and that a second 747 of the same airline, ER-MAM, which it described as "UAE govt-linked," made repeated flights from Al Ain to Bole. It also reported that a Vise Air Il-76TD, registration 7Q-VAA, left Al Ain for East Africa, "likely bound for Ethiopia." Mereja reported on Monday on earlier open-source reports of Il-76 flights to Harar Meda airbase.<\/p>\n

Early on Wednesday, AfriMEOSINT posted video of what it said was an intact Berkut-BM drone, a turbojet-powered one-way attack drone developed by Belarus's INDELA Design Bureau, recovered in Sudan's Blue Nile State. The account first wrote that it "was likely operated by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)." Minutes later, it offered another possibility: "Alternatively, the drone may have been supplied to the RSF by Ethiopia, which claims to manufacture the Belarusian Berkut-BM domestically. So far, the drone has only been sighted in Sudan's Blue Nile State, which could lend weight to that theory." The account OsintBH, whose profile describes it as an OSINT and military enthusiast account focused on Bahrain and the Middle East, wrote that four Il-76TD cargo flights from Minsk to Eritrea's Massawa airport had been tracked, "potentially indicating a supply route to Sudan."<\/p>\n

Sudanese voices on X have gone further. Sudanese Echo, whose profile says it reflects "Sudan's true voices," wrote on Monday, citing "reliable sources," that a drone attack on eastern Khartoum that day was launched from a site "approximately 13 kilometers across the Ethiopian border, southeast of the Ethiopian town of Al-Biro." It said the attack killed four civilians, including three children, and repeated its earlier claim that "a group of foreign mercenaries had arrived at Asosa Airport in western Ethiopia aboard an aircraft from the United Arab Emirates." Mereja could not verify either claim. An Ethiopian user, @Shiferaw77, wrote on Tuesday that "BahirDar and Asosa have become the launching pads for the drones that strike Sudan." The Reporter, the Addis Ababa weekly, published an analysis on Wednesday under the headline "Attacks on Sudan's Borderlands: Why Is Al-Burhan Keeping a Blind Spot on Cairo?" which Mereja was not able to read in full.<\/p>\n

The flights were tracked days after a sharp exchange at the UN Security Council on October 16. Sudan's ambassador, Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed, told the council that drones were being launched from neighboring countries at Blue Nile and the power stations of the Roseires Dam, that the Sudanese army had shot down three suicide drones that crossed from Ethiopia, and that the RSF had been launching attacks on civilians from the Asosa area, according to the Abay Times and the UN's record of the meeting.<\/p>\n

Ethiopia's ambassador, Tesfaye Yilma Sabo, rejected what he called "baseless" accusations and said evidence of Sudanese arms smuggled into Ethiopia would be made available in due course, the Abay Times reported. He said Ethiopia was trying to address, through bilateral channels, what he called grave violations of its territorial integrity by some actors in Sudan's war, and he raised reports that an unnamed neighbor of Sudan was operating drone bases and that air strikes and artillery fire from that state had killed civilians and gold miners inside Sudan. "No security justification can excuse unlawful attacks on civilians or civilian infrastructure," he said. Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN's political affairs chief, told the council the situation along Sudan's borders was "increasingly worrying."<\/p>\n

Three days before that meeting, Sudan's foreign minister, Mohieddin Salem, said Khartoum was willing to talk to Ethiopia if Addis Ababa stopped what Sudan calls its support for the RSF, the Abay Times reported. The UAE has repeatedly denied arming the RSF. In a September 4 statement, its mission to the UN in Geneva said it had not "provided arms or any related materiel to any party in Sudan since the outbreak of the conflict in April 2023," Gulf News reported. The Ethiopian Gov't has not commented publicly on the flights reported this week.<\/p>\n

Mereja has asked the Government Communication Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to confirm or deny the reported flights to Asosa and the use of Ethiopian territory for drone launches, with a deadline of noon ET on Thursday, and will update this story with any response.<\/p>\n

AfriMEOSINT, citing Reuters, wrote on Wednesday that satellite imagery showed damage at a market in the disputed Abyei region hit by a SAF drone on Monday, "killing at least 153 people," and that three diplomatic sources told Reuters the strike hit a fuel depot previously used by the RSF to supply its forces.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/h4>\n