Steady Flow of Military Cargo Flights Points to Growing Foreign Support for Sudan’s Army

In recent weeks, flight data shows a sharp increase in cargo aircraft arriving at Port Sudan, suggesting that military supplies are being airlifted to Sudan’s national armed forces (SAF) as they continue fighting the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Port Sudan remains under firm control of the government military, making it a key logistical hub for foreign support.

Some aircraft, however, are diverting to Massawa in Eritrea. It is unclear whether military goods is being transferred onward to Sudan from there. No ground photography has emerged, and Eritrea—ruled by a long-standing authoritarian regime—has no publicly available ADS-B receivers. Airlines may be choosing Massawa because Port Sudan is considered high-risk; the airport was struck by RSF drone attacks in May.

Sudan is receiving military backing from Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Qatar, and—indirectly—Russia and Belarus.

On 21 August, a Rubystar Ilyushin Il-76 (EW-567TH) made a flights from Minsk, with its tracking signal disappearing over the Red Sea, likely en route to Eritrea. On 6 November, a Turkish Gulfstream (TC-IHA), linked to the Turkish intelligence service MIT, flew from Istanbul to Port Sudan.

A satellite photo taken on November 1 shows an unidentified IL-76 and a C-130 parked at Massawa Airport.

Cargo activity continued in the following days:

• Air Master Boeing 737 freighters SU-SFY and SU-SAW operated between Istanbul and Port Sudan.
• A Qatari Air Force C-17 and C-130 flew from Al Udeid Air Base to Port Sudan.
• Sky Vision Airlines Airbus A321 Freighter SU-SKF flew from Cairo to Port Sudan on 9–10 November.
• On 10 November, a Rada Airlines Ilyushin Il-92 (EW-505TR) flew from Tehran to Massawa or Asmara in Eritrea. Previously, an Air Qeshm Boeing 747 (EP-FAB) operated to Massawa. The aircraft left Tehran in a southeasterly direction, overflew Oman to Eritrea.
• On November 11, Egypt minister of Foreign affairs flew to Port Sudan on board Petroleum Air Services Dash8-300 SU-CBN for talks with military leaders of Sudan
• On November 19 IL-62 EW-450TR flew from Tehran to an airport in Eritrea. Some say this is transport of weapons for Houthi’s in Yemen. These weapons needs to be shipped from an Eritrea harbour to a Houthi controlled harbour. Unlike the November 10 flight, this flight took a northern route flying via Turkey airspace.

The flight data and route analysis were first documented by independent open-source researcher Rich Ted (@AfriMEOSINT) on X.