Turkiye has supplied drones to Sudan’s military in its fight against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in a move that further affirms Ankara’s support for the embattled country’s army, reports the Middle East Monitor.
According to a report by the news outlet Middle East Eye, unnamed sources familiar with the matter revealed that Turkiye supplied an unspecified number of combat drones to the Sudanese military in October 2024, enabling it to launch offensives and counteroffensives against the RSF which are proving increasingly successful.
One of the sources reportedly said that Bayraktar TB2 drones had been used to strike RSF logistics convoys, artillery batteries and response units, with such raids having begun in Al-Jazirah province in late 2024 – when the Sudanese military started to make significant advances and retake key territories – and continued through to the capital Khartoum and its surrounding areas.
The report quoted a senior Sudanese army officer as stating that “at the beginning of the war, we lost many military bases and faced significant challenges. With the arrival of the drones, the RSF’s superiority ended. Now we have air support that matches our strength on the ground.”
An RSF fighter also lamented the difficulty in fighting off the Bayraktar drones, saying that “you can’t see it. You can’t shoot it. And suddenly you find that you have died.”
The presence of the Turkish drones in Sudan marks yet another conflict front in which the UAVs have proven a useful and effective game-changer, with other fronts over the past half a decade including Libya, Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh.
It also marks Ankara’s most direct military support and assistance to Sudan’s army since the ongoing civil war began in April 2023, making it a potentially significant turning point in the conflict.
