EGYPT ’s SECRET DESERT AIRBASE EMERGES AS KEY LAUNCHPAD IN SUDAN DRONE WAR.
BY NJOKI KARANJA.
A secretive Egyptian airbase hidden deep in the Western Desert has emerged as a crucial hub in the rapidly escalating drone war over Sudan, marking a significant shift in Cairo’s role in the region’s bloodiest conflict.
According to a detailed investigation by The New York Times, the facility—officially known as East Oweinat Airport—has been used for months to launch long-range drone strikes deep into Sudanese territory. The base, the report says, is carefully disguised amid vast circular wheat fields whose geometric patterns, visible from space, help conceal runways and military infrastructure by blending them into what appears to be an ambitious agricultural project.
Satellite imagery, flight records, field videos and interviews with American, European and Arab officials reveal that the site has become a major node in the Sudanese civil war, which has raged for more than a thousand days and increasingly revolves around the use of unmanned aerial vehicles.
Sources cited by the newspaper said Turkish-made Akinci drones are being launched from East Oweinat to strike the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group fighting Sudan’s army, which is headquartered in Port Sudan. The use of the base signals a qualitative change in Egypt’s posture: after months of presenting itself primarily as a diplomatic broker, Cairo now appears to be directly intervening militarily on the side of the Sudanese army.
Analysts say Egyptian concerns intensified after the fall of El Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region in late October 2025, an advance that raised alarm in Cairo over the RSF’s growing reach near Egypt’s southern flank. In December 2025, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi publicly warned against crossing what he described as a “red line.” Shortly afterward, drone strikes inside Sudan reportedly intensified.
Satellite images reviewed by investigators show that East Oweinat Airport has undergone major expansion since 2018, including the construction of a second runway and at least 17 aircraft hangars. In July 2025, Turkish cargo planes were seen landing at the base, delivering Akinci drone systems, while satellite communication equipment was installed nearby.
The Akinci represents a significant upgrade over the widely used Bayraktar TB2. It has a reported range exceeding 4,500 miles, can carry three times the munitions load of the TB2, and costs up to $25 million per unit. From the Egyptian desert, the drones are capable of reaching large swaths of Sudan without refueling.
According to weapons experts and video evidence cited in the investigation, drones launched from the base have targeted RSF supply convoys moving through the desert from Libya and Chad. One video from November 2025 shows four trucks engulfed in flames shortly after crossing into Sudan. Other strikes hit concentrations of fighters in Darfur, killing at least 20 people in one attack, and sparked massive fires at border crossings such as Adikonj, destroying buildings and surrounding areas.
The RSF has acknowledged the impact of the strikes and claims to have shot down at least four Akinci drones in recent months. Its commander, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, has issued veiled threats of retaliation, warning that any airport used to launch drones would be considered a legitimate military target. RSF statements have referred ominously to a “foreign base” behind the attacks.
The revelations underscore how Sudan’s civil war has evolved into a proxy battleground involving multiple foreign powers, with drones now at the center of the fight. For Egypt, the exposure of East Oweinat’s role highlights the risks of deeper entanglement—and raises new questions about how far Cairo is prepared to go to shape the outcome of the conflict on its southern border.
