Published On 8/12/20258/12/2025
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Last updated: 9/12/2025 10:34 (Mecca time)Last updated: 9/12/2025 10:34 (Mecca time)
Sudan's borders with Ethiopia and the Blue Nile state, which is being attacked by the Rapid Support Forces (Al Jazeera)
Khartoum - Sudanese official sources revealed to Al Jazeera Net that Sudan is preparing for the opening of a new military front in its east after neighboring Ethiopia allowed the opening of a training camp for the Rapid Support Forces and foreign mercenaries affiliated with it to attack the Blue Nile region adjacent to its borders.
Government sources, who requested anonymity, explained that the Ethiopian authorities have military coordination with the Rapid Support Forces through regional powers that support them, where an agreement was reached on supply lines, the construction of training camps, and the equipping of airstrips.
According to the same sources, a movement of supply and arrival of combat vehicles, artillery systems and jamming devices began through the city of Assosa, the capital of the Benishangul-Gumuz region in the northwest of Ethiopia, which borders the Blue Nile region in Sudan, where the Renaissance Dam is located.
Training and supply
Government sources also revealed that there is intelligence coordination between the Ethiopian army and the Rapid Support Forces and the SPLA, the military arm of the SPLM-North in the Blue Nile region, led by Joseph Tuka, who is affiliated with the movement led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu . Tuka’s forces are deployed in pockets in the region and are active in the border strip in Upper Nile State in South Sudan.
Platforms close to the Sudanese authorities reported further details about the new developments related to the war in the country, stating that the Ethiopian training camp designated for the Rapid Support Forces accommodates more than 10,000 fighters in the areas of Manqi and Al-Ahmar in the Ondolo locality, and is supervised by the Ethiopian General Getachew Gudina in coordination with foreign officers whose countries stand behind the forces.
The trained foreign elements include mercenaries from South Sudan , others from Latin American countries, most notably Colombian fighters, in addition to elements from the Rapid Support Forces who had fled the battlefronts in Sudan and were gathered and deported from Darfur .
Those reports indicated that logistical supplies for the camp arrive via the Somali port of Berbera and the Kenyan port of Mombasa before being transported into Ethiopia.
She added that Joseph Teka, who has a main camp for his forces in the Sudanese border area of Yabus, recently received drones that were used in recent days to target the cities of Damazin, the capital of the Blue Nile region, and Kurmuk, which is close to the Ethiopian border, from the areas of Yabus, Maklaf, and Balila.
She revealed that weapons, combat equipment, and logistical supplies are transported through the capital of the Benishangul region to the villages of Aburamu, Sharquli, Ahufandu, and then Qashan, which are about 30 kilometers away from the Sudanese city of Yabus, to be delivered to the Rapid Support Forces and the SPLM forces, which have several camps in that area. Drone supplies are also transported by air.
Warnings
Ismail Al-Amin, a university professor interested in African affairs, believes that the recent developments in establishing a training camp for Rapid Support Forces fighters on Ethiopian soil reveal a dangerous shift in the pattern of regional interventions in the Sudanese crisis.
If it is not met with effective Sudanese, regional and international action, Al-Amin told Al Jazeera Net, the war will enter a new, more bloody phase, threatening security and stability in the Horn of Africa , given that Sudan and Ethiopia are the largest countries in the region, in addition to their geopolitical location.
He believes that, given the economic pressures and tensions in some regions of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa is unlikely to have the financial capacity to wage a new major war, and its military involvement in the Sudanese crisis would be a potential source of further instability within Ethiopia, as Khartoum possesses leverage that could harm its neighbor's security due to border overlap and the presence of armed groups opposed to it near the border.
"Tightening the limbs"
For his part, writer and political analyst Youssef Abdel-Mannan says that what is happening on Sudan’s eastern borders is a policy of “stretching the edges,” where military and logistical supplies for the Rapid Support Forces pass through the borders with eastern Libya, Central Africa, Chad, South Sudan, and finally Ethiopia.
In a statement to Al Jazeera Net, Abdul-Mannan likens the new developments to what happened in the mid-nineties, when Washington sought to overthrow the regime of former President Omar al-Bashir through Operation "Heavy Rains," in which Uganda, Ethiopia and Eritrea participated in supporting the forces of the People’s Movement led by John Garang and launched a simultaneous attack on Sudan’s southern and eastern borders from the three countries to change the regime or compel it to sign a peace agreement with the rebels.
From the first weeks of the outbreak of war in Sudan, Ethiopia’s position was characterized by rapprochement with the Rapid Support Forces and political forces allied with it, and it hosted officials from the opposition forces and forces during the summit of leaders of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development ( IGAD ) in July 2023, from which the Sudanese delegation withdrew in protest.
The statements of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at the time angered Khartoum, when he claimed that Sudan was suffering from a leadership vacuum, and called for the deployment of African forces and the imposition of a no-fly zone in the country.
Abiy Ahmed visited Port Sudan in July 2024 and held talks with the head of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council , Abdel Fattah al-Burhan , to thaw relations between them and mediate to contain tensions between Khartoum and Abu Dhabi . Ethiopian intelligence chief Redwan Hussein also visited Port Sudan last July on a mission whose results were not announced.
Source: Al Jazeera
