Ethiopia is covertly supporting Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces paramilitary from an army base in the country’s Benishangul-Gumuz region, Middle East Eye can reveal.

Satellite imagery analysed by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab and seen exclusively by MEE shows, over many months, a wide range of activity consistent with alleged military assistance to the RSF at an Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) base on the outskirts of the western city of Asosa.

From December to the end of March, as the RSF conducted intense cross-border attacks on Sudanese army positions in Sudan’s Blue Nile state, car transporters rolled in and out of the Asosa base carrying technical vehicles, while tents capable of holding up to 150 fighters appeared and supplies were dispersed.

In February, 200 technical vehicles were seen at the base. Unarmed technical vehicles were retrofitted with gun mounts capable of holding heavy machine guns, while vehicles consistent with those seen at Asosa were also sighted in the midst of RSF battles in Blue Nile.

The satellite imagery seen first by MEE and published in a report by Yale’s HRL later today, alongside photos and videos posted online, connects the car transporters and other vehicles seen at Asosa with Berbera, the Somaliland city port that hosts a base run by the United Arab Emirates.