AD-DAMAZIN – The Sudanese army said on Sunday it had shot down what it described as a “strategic hostile drone” while it was flying over Balang in the eastern sector of Kurmuk locality in the Blue Nile region, adding that the drone had entered from the direction of the Ethiopian border.
The media office of the army’s Fourth Infantry Division said in a statement that the division’s air defenses intercepted and downed the drone, without identifying who operated it, its model or the mission it was carrying out.
The statement did not report any casualties or damage. Sudan Now could not independently verify the circumstances of the incident or the drone’s point of origin.
The army said its air defenses were continuing to monitor Blue Nile’s operational sectors, secure vital sites and respond to aerial threats in the area.
Kurmuk lies near Sudan’s border with Ethiopia. Areas of southern Blue Nile have witnessed clashes in recent months involving the army on one side and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu on the other.
The announcement follows a series of similar incidents in the region. In August, the army said it had downed several drones that it claimed crossed the border from the direction of Ethiopia, without identifying who launched them. Addis Ababa did not comment at the time on some of those announcements.
The use of drones has escalated in Sudan’s war, which erupted between the army and the RSF in April 2023 and later expanded into several regions, including Blue Nile and parts of Kordofan.
