Sudan's army said on Tuesday that its air defences had intercepted and shot down a "hostile" drone that crossed into Sudanese airspace from Ethiopia, the latest flashpoint in a deepening quarrel between the two Horn of Africa neighbours that regional analysts warn could spill into a new front in Sudan's war.

In a statement reported by Anadolu Agency and the Sudan Tribune, the army said the aircraft was brought down over Blue Nile state in the south-east of the country after crossing the border. It did not say who operated the drone, what it was targeting or where exactly it was intercepted. There was no immediate response from Addis Ababa.

The incident came two days after Sudan's Foreign Ministry formally lodged complaints with the UN Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council accusing Ethiopia of allowing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to use its territory as a launch pad for drone strikes on Sudanese cities and infrastructure.

187 drones in eight months

A report by the army-led Transitional Sovereignty Council, cited by AFP and Addis Standard, says Sudan documented 70 attacks involving 187 one-way attack drones launched from Ethiopian soil between 15 February and 27 October this year. The report says the strikes killed 176 Sudanese soldiers, wounded 200 more and killed or injured 484 civilians.

It names three launch sites: Asosa airport in Ethiopia's western Benishangul-Gumuz region, the Kurmuk-Gizen border area, and Bahir Dar air base in the Amhara region. Khartoum says the attacks have intensified sharply, with 28 recorded in October alone involving 97 drones.

The deadliest incident listed was a 9 October strike on displaced families in Wad el-Mahi, Blue Nile state, close to the Ethiopian border, which the report says killed 30 civilians, 26 of them women and four children, and wounded 100. Attacks on 26 and 27 October knocked six power stations out of service, and Al Jazeera reports that more than 90 per cent of power stations serving Sudanese cities are now out of action because of drone warfare.

Sudan said it "reserves its right to self-defence under international law". The claims could not be independently verified. The UN has separately recorded more than 1,100 people killed in drone attacks across Sudan in the first half of 2026, and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the weekend condemned the "escalating drone attacks in Sudan by the parties to the conflict".

Ethiopia denies, points to Tigray

Ethiopia has repeatedly rejected accusations that it is involved in attacks on Sudanese forces and infrastructure. It has in turn accused the Sudanese army of backing rebels linked to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), who have been fighting federal troops and Eritrean-backed forces in northern Ethiopia since a major offensive began in September. Khartoum denies that charge.

Why it matters to Kenya

Abdul Kareem Al-Almin Ahmed, a Sudanese border affairs specialist, told Al Jazeera that mutual accusations between the two governments were now "almost daily" and that some voices in the Sudanese army and its allied militias were openly calling for war with Ethiopia. He warned that opening a new front "is not in [the army's] favour and confuses the region".

For Nairobi, the stakes are concrete. Kenya hosts hundreds of thousands of Sudanese and Ethiopian refugees, has been a venue for Sudan peace talks and trades heavily with Ethiopia through Moyale, where Kenyan schools were already disrupted this week by stray fire from fighting across the border. A direct confrontation between two of the Nile basin's biggest states would reshape security across the entire Horn.

Photos: President.az via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, April 2025); Office of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia via Wikimedia Commons (public domain, Abiy Ahmed). Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.