Post wrongly claims Sudanese paramilitary announcement of attack on Eritrea naval

Sudanese Army sources said the port of Sudan and the area near the border with Eritrea was attacked by a drone strike by the Paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF). Shortly thereafter, a coordinated post was posted on Ethiopia's social media, saying that the RSF announced a strike on Eritrea naval vessels in the Red Sea. However, this is wrong. The RSF has not made any such public announcements, nor has there been reports of damage to Eritrean ships during a drone strike. The photos accompanying the post show only smoke caused by the strike in Port Sudan, and Reuters initially published one of the photos, which specified in its title was a fuel warehouse that drew slam.

A Facebook post was published on Amharic on May 11, 2025, with a title that reads: “Breakthrough News: Eritrean Navy has been attacked by drones.”

The Post said: “General Hmedy's news outlet RSF reported earlier today that the remnants of the Sabian Navy and Al Berhan's troops were buried deep in the Red Sea.”

“Shabia” refers to the Eritrea government.

Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commonly known as Hemedti, is the leader of the Sudan RSF paramilitary.

Since 2023, the RSF has been fighting the country's armed forces led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan. Two military men, once allies, removed long-serving President Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and then became rivals in the ongoing civil war.

Screenshot of fake post, taken on May 12, 2025

The post continues: “The report was accompanied by the photos and published yesterday and he said the next target will be Asmara and Port Masawa.”

Massawa is an Eritrea port on the Red Sea.

The post added: “Shabia anti-pirate warships were deployed to coastal areas to defend Al-Burhan, while General Hemedti's RSF attacked the Port of Sultan with modern drones for three consecutive days.”

Eritrea has a small naval force, with high-speed ships patrolling the Red Sea (archived here).

The post is accompanied by three images: the first two dark smoke feathers in the port environment, while the third shows maps of East and North Africa.

AFP fact-check found that the claim was being shared in a coordinated manner with Ethiopian Facebook account.

The overview of these accounts suggests that most of them publish interprofessional government content and include the terms “breaking news,” “update,” or “media” in their names.

These include posts shared here and here.

Regional competition

Since the civil war began in April 2023, the battle between the Sudanese regular army and the RSF has killed thousands of people and displaced more than 13 million (reserved here).

There are concerns that the war will further undermine the corners of the African conflict by involving foreign armed groups and regional powers. Egypt supported Al-Burhan, while the United Arab Emirates supported Daglo.

Eritrea reportedly supports Al-Burhan's army by providing several military training camps, which the Eritrea government has neither denied nor confirmed, archived here. Last month, al-Burhan visited Asmara and praised Eritrea President Isaias Afewerki for his country (archive here).

Amid these developments, the RSF carried out a rare drone attack on the eastern Sudanese city of Kasala on 3 May 2025 (archived here).

Three days later, AFP reported that the RSF was accused of conducting a drone strike at the airport, a fuel warehouse and a power substation in the port of Sudan (archived here).

Meanwhile, Ethiopia's pursuit of entering the Red Sea has also led to regional tensions in Eritrea and Somalia. Although Ethiopia and Somalia have fully resumed diplomatic ties after a peace agreement earlier this year, Ethiopia's competition with Eritrea continues (archived here).

However, contrary to the posts shared on Ethiopian social media, the RSF has not announced an attack on Eritrea naval vessels, and the accompanying photos do not support this claim.

No evidence

The RSF has no announcements claiming any attacks on Eritrea naval vessels.

AFP fact-check reviewed the RSF's official website and determined that no such attack was mentioned (archived here).

Furthermore, we found no reliable reports of the attacks on Eritrea naval vessels in any RSF drone attack.

AFP fact check performed a reverse image search and found the original photos used in the post.

Search results for the first image show that the original photo was captured on May 6, 2025 by Reuters photographer Khalid Abdelaziz, when Port Sudan was hit by a drone.

The title reads: “A scene shows a large feather, and from May 6, 2025, a large amount of smoke and fire rose from the fuel warehouse in Sudan.”

Search results for the second photo show that it was originally captured by Turkish news agency Anadolu on the same date (archived here).

Its title reads: “The smoke exploded after it exploded after the explosion in the southern part of the Sudan Port on May 6, 2025. According to local sources, a series of loud explosions were heard in the area, followed by a fire at the port.”

AFP and other media reports described the fuel depot being hit, but did not mention any naval vessel being hit.

The third image shows a map of armed groups in the Sudanese Civil War and its alliance with foreign forces, published in a BBC article (archived here).

Despite the requests made in the post, no images depict the Eritrean naval ship being hit.