Independent corroboration

Reuters: an RSF camp built by Ethiopia's defence intelligence

On 10 February 2026 Reuters published an investigation, based on fifteen sources and satellite imagery, establishing that Ethiopia had built a secret camp in the Menge district of Benishangul-Gumuz to train RSF fighters.¹⁹ Among its findings:

• The camp lies about 32 km from the Sudanese border and about 101 km from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. A diplomatic cable put its capacity at up to 10,000 fighters; an internal Ethiopian security note recorded 4,300 RSF fighters in training in early January 2026.
• According to that security note, confirmed by a senior Ethiopian official and four diplomatic and security sources, the camp was set up by General Getachew Gudina, Chief of the Defence Intelligence Department of the Ethiopian National Defence Force.
• Satellite imagery showed more than 640 tents by 24 November 2025; Ethiopian officials described columns of 56 and 70 trucks carrying trainees in November 2025.
• At Asosa Airport, 53 km from the camp, new construction since August 2025 included a hangar, paved aprons and, as identified by a military-technology expert of the Dutch organisation PAX, a UAV ground-control station and a satellite antenna. Senior Ethiopian officials told Reuters that the military planned to turn the airport into a drone operations centre.
• Eight sources, including a senior Ethiopian government official, stated that the United Arab Emirates financed the camp and provided trainers and logistics; trucks of an Emirati logistics firm were seen driving through Asosa towards the camp.

The Chairman of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee publicly expressed concern at the reports the same day.²⁰

Yale Humanitarian Research Lab: "clear visual evidence"

In April 2026 the Humanitarian Research Lab of the Yale School of Public Health reported that satellite imagery and open-source data showed activity consistent with military assistance to the RSF at an Ethiopian army base in Asosa between late December 2025 and late March 2026, and that its findings represented clear visual evidence, over a five-month period, that RSF attacks on Blue Nile State were launched from inside Ethiopia. Commercial car carriers unloaded armed pickup trucks at the base; similar vehicles later appeared in the fighting around Kurmuk, about 100 km away by road. The Lab also documented a significant expansion of Asosa Airport, including a new hangar, a concrete pad and defensive fighting positions.²¹

Cargo flights into Asosa

Open-source satellite monitoring between 20 August and 7 September 2026 recorded about four Ilyushin Il-76TD cargo aircraft linked to the United Arab Emirates parked at Asosa Airport, with flights originating from Al Ain, followed by the build-up and subsequent dispersal of military supplies and armed vehicles at the Ethiopian army base.²²

Convergence of the evidence