Is Sudan’s Sky Permissible to Violate? Drone Incursions Reveal the Real Test of Sovereignty

Mohannad Awad Mahmoud

The drone incursions launched from inside Ethiopian territory were not a passing incident or a battlefield miscalculation. They constituted a direct test for the Sudanese state: could its airspace be violated after its land had already been violated on 15 April 2023? This is a question Sudan’s adversaries should never have felt compelled to ask; it should have been answered before it was posed. Yet the official response fell short of the gravity of the question — and the moment.
The statement issued by the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs read more like an administrative notice: restrained language, neutral expressions, and an attempt to attribute the attack to the Rapid Support Forces militia operating in the Benishangul–Gumuz region, as though Ethiopia’s responsibility could somehow be diluted. In reality, anyone who understands the meaning of sovereignty knows a fundamental principle: what originates from the territory of a state is the responsibility of that state — whether carried out by its army, its intelligence services, or a group allowed to operate from its soil. This is not a political opinion; it is a basic rule of national security.
Statements by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan that he had attempted to contact Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to discuss the matter only further weakened the picture. Actions of this nature are not addressed through phone calls or requests for meetings. States subjected to such acts do not wait for appointments; they define the moment themselves, responding in kind or with greater force. That is the language of states that command respect and whose deterrence is taken seriously.
When Abiy Ahmed does not respond to a request for communication, it should not be interpreted as mere diplomatic scheduling. Rather, it sends a clear signal that Ethiopia does not feel compelled to provide explanations or open negotiations after an attack has already taken place within Sudanese airspace.
From the outset, Sudan should have raised the stakes. It should have declared that the violation of its airspace constitutes a fully fledged hostile act for which Ethiopia bears political and military responsibility. Clear, unequivocal messages were required. Sudan could have recalled its ambassador from Addis Ababa for consultations, issued a strongly worded protest note, requested an urgent meeting of the African Union Peace and Security Council, formally notified IGAD and the Arab League, and launched an assertive diplomatic campaign rather than a defensive one. Sovereignty is not protected by statements alone; it is protected by imposing a cost on those who attempt to violate it.
While the government may possess intelligence assessments and regional considerations not disclosed to the public, safeguarding national airspace remains a red line that cannot be postponed or left to goodwill.
Militarily, escalation into war was not necessary — but demonstrating the ability to prevent war was. Sudan could have heightened readiness, strengthened surveillance, declared a security zone along the eastern border, and taken calibrated deterrent steps that Addis Ababa would immediately understand. States are not respected because they speak about responding, but because they show they are prepared to do so.
Sudan today is not the Sudan of 15 April. The army holds the initiative on the ground, and the state has regained a measure of its capacity to impose its choices. What remains is to protect what lies above the land and beneath the sky. The prestige of the state is not restored through carefully worded statements, but through positions that alter the calculations of adversaries.
If the cost of violating Sudanese airspace is not raised now, it will be repeated tomorrow. Those who test the sky once will test it again if they encounter no wall to stop them.
The message that must emerge from Khartoum today is simple and unmistakable:
Sudan’s skies are not an open void. And anyone who seeks to tamper with them will discover that a state capable of standing firm on the ground will not allow the same violations to occur above it.

Shortlink: https://sudanhorizon.com/?p=11855