The international quintet is preparing to hold meetings with Sudanese political forces in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, at the end of this month, specifically from 27 to 29 July 2026, more than three years after the outbreak of the conflict between the army in Port Sudan and the Sudan Founding Alliance, “Tasis.”
The quintet comprises the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union, IGAD, and the Arab League.
The move comes as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy, Haavisto, holds a series of meetings with regional and Sudanese parties in Uganda and Kenya, while Massad Boulos, the senior adviser to the U.S. president, holds a series of meetings in Cairo, including with the Arab League and the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
According to Sudanese radio station Radio Dabanga, “the agenda of the dialogue scheduled to take place in Addis Ababa will focus on discussing ways to reach a ceasefire and narrowing differences in order to establish a common vision that supports peace and advances the future of the political process to end the conflict in Sudan.”
Coinciding with these developments, a new package of U.S. sanctions came into effect on 20 July 2026, after the U.S. administration concluded that the Sudanese government that is, Port Sudan had failed to meet the requirements set out under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control Act within the specified deadline.
The U.S. State Department said the decision followed a three-month review that concluded that Khartoum had failed to take the measures required to avoid the next phase of sanctions, following allegations of the use of chemical weapons in the conflict that has continued since April 2023.
The new sanctions include Washington’s opposition to any loans or financial or technical assistance to Sudan through international financial institutions, with an exception for essential humanitarian assistance, including food and urgent needs.
A Record Rife with Violations
Amid discussions of the use of chemical weapons, the Sudan Founding Alliance, “Tasis,” said on Sunday, 19 July 2026: “In a new crime added to its record of targeting civilians and civilian facilities, the army of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group today committed a series of war crimes, as its air force launched raids targeting unarmed civilians in the city of Umm Qirfa and the villages of Al-Hurayz Al-Hamadab, Wad Musa, Al-Markha, and Umm Taqirat in North Kordofan, using Iranian-made vacuum bombs and barrel bombs dropped by Antonov aircraft, in a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and all international norms and conventions.”
It added: “In the city of Umm Qirfa, the bombardment resulted in the deaths of three herders and two women, in addition to the deaths of livestock while they were in areas containing water sources, after the army of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group deliberately targeted water sources. The bombardment of the other villages also resulted in the deaths of seven civilians, including two children and five men, among them two elderly men, and injured 18 civilians to varying degrees, in systematic crimes targeting civilians and their livelihoods.”
The Emergency Lawyers Group said in a statement on 30 June 2026 that “an army aircraft dropped barrel bombs on the areas of Umm Dabab and Al-Zaraf, north of the Umm Badr locality in North Kordofan, injuring dozens of civilians, including children and herders, in the Umm Dabab area while they were near a water source, in addition to killing large numbers of livestock.” It added that “the bombardment also targeted the Al-Zaraf area, one of the areas of artisanal mining, exposing civilians working there to direct danger.”
Supplies That Do Not Stop
While the commander of the army in Port Sudan, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, continues to insist on a military victory, observers say the continued supply of weapons and their flow into Port Sudan is a key factor in the continuation of the war.
In this context, the U.S. newspaper The New York Timespublished an investigation at the beginning of February 2026 entitled “The Secret Egyptian Air Base Behind Sudan’s Drone War.”
The investigation was prepared by Declan Walsh, Malachy Browne, Eric Schmitt, and Nick Cumming-Bruce, and was based on satellite imagery, flight records, video footage, and interviews with U.S., European, and Arab officials.
The report said the base is located in East Oweinat, an agricultural area and remote airfield in Egypt’s far southwest, near the border triangle with Sudan and Libya. The runway lies amid a vast agricultural reclamation project, whose circular fields are clearly visible in satellite imagery.
According to the newspaper, the runway at East Oweinat was gradually developed and transformed into a hub for operating advanced combat drones, believed to be Bayraktar Akinciaircraft. It said drones had taken off from the site and, over a period of at least six months, carried out strikes against Rapid Support Forces positions inside Sudan in support of the Sudanese army.
According to the investigation, satellite imagery detected Akincidrones at the airfield after Turkish cargo aircraft arrived in the area. The newspaper concluded that at least two aircraft were operating from the base by December 2025. It noted that some strikes reached targets more than 800 miles—approximately 1,300 kilometres—inside Sudanese territory.
The investigation also presented video footage of a strike targeting a gathering of Rapid Support Forces fighters in a village in Darfur. Weapons experts who reviewed the footage said the munition appeared to be a guided bomb produced by the Turkish company Roketsan and that the characteristics of the strike were consistent with the capabilities of an Akinci drone. However, the video alone cannot establish which party ordered the strike or operated the aircraft.
A day after the investigation, Reuters reported in a separate investigation that it had reviewed images captured by the U.S. satellite company Vantor showing a large aircraft at East Oweinat Airport on 29 September and 28 December 2025 and 9 January 2026. Two military experts identified the aircraft as a Bayraktar Akinci based on the distinctive shape of its fuselage and wings.
Reuters quoted Egyptian security officials as saying that two airports in southern Egypt had been equipped with military equipment in previous months to secure the border and carry out strikes linked to the protection of “national security.” However, the officials provided no details about the locations of the strikes and did not explicitly acknowledge that they had been carried out inside Sudan.