Posts falsely claim Sudanese paramilitary announced attack on Eritrean navy

AFP

16-05-2025

A Facebook post, published in Amharic on May 11, 2025, contains a headline that reads: 'Breaking news: Eritrean navy has been attacked by drones.'
'Lt General Hemedti's news outlet, RSF, reported earlier today that Shabia navy forces and the remnants of al-Burhan's forces were buried deep in the Red Sea,' the post says.
'Shabia' refers to the Eritrean government.
Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commonly referred to as Hemedti, is the leader of Sudan's RSF paramilitary.
Since 2023, the RSF has been fighting against the country's armed forces, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The two military men were once allies who ousted long-serving president Omar al-Bashir in 2019 before becoming rivals in the ongoing civil war.
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Screenshot of the false post, taken on May 12, 2025
The post continues: 'The report, accompanied by photos and published yesterday, said that the next targets will be Asmara and the port of Massawa.'
Massawa is an Eritrean port on the Red Sea.
'The Shabia anti-piracy warships were deployed to the coastal areas to defend al-Burhan, while Lieutenant General Hemedti's RSF attacked Port Sudan with modern drones for three days in a row,' the post adds.
Eritrea has a small navy force with high-speed boats that patrol the Red Sea (archived here).
The post is accompanied by three images: the first two show plumes of dark smoke in a port setting, while the third shows a map of eastern and northern Africa.
AFP Fact Check found that the claim is being shared in a coordinated manner on Ethiopian Facebook accounts.
An overview of these accounts shows that most of them publish pro-Ethiopian government content and include the words 'breaking news', 'update', or 'media' in their names.
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Screenshots of several posts shared in a coordinated manner, taken on May 12, 2025
These include posts shared here and here .
Regional rivalries
Since the civil war began in April 2023, fighting between Sudan's regular army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 13 million (archived here).
It is feared that the war could further destabilise the conflict-ridden Horn of Africa by involving foreign armed groups and regional powers. Egypt has backed al-Burhan, while the United Arab Emirates has backed Daglo.
Eritrea has reportedly supported al-Burhan's army by providing several military training camps, which the Eritrean government has neither denied nor confirmed (archived here). Last month, al-Burhan visited Asmara and hailed Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki's support for his country (archived here).
Amidst these developments, the RSF carried out a rare drone attack on Sudan's eastern city of Kassala, near the Eritrean border, on May 3, 2025 (archived here).
Three days later, AFP reported that RSF was accused of drone strikes on the airport, fuel depots and a power substation in the city of Port Sudan (archived here).
Meanwhile, Ethiopia's pursuit of access to the Red Sea has also led to regional tensions with Eritrea and Somalia. While Ethiopia and Somalia have fully restored their diplomatic ties following a peace agreement earlier this year, Ethiopia's rivalry with Eritrea continues (archived here).
However, contrary to the posts shared on Ethiopian social media, the RSF has not announced that it attacked Eritrean navy vessels, nor do the accompanying photos support this claim.
No evidence
There have been no announcements from RSF claiming any attack against Eritrean navy vessels.
AFP Fact Check reviewed RSF's official website and established that no mention was made of any such attack (archived here).
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Screenshot of a page from RSF's official website, taken on May 14, 2025
Moreover, we found no credible reports about Eritrean navy vessels being hit in any RSF drone attacks.
AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches and found the original photos used in the posts.
The search results for the first image established that the original photo was captured by Reuters photographer Khalid Abdelaziz on May 6, 2025, when Port Sudan was hit by drones.
The caption reads: 'A view shows a large plume of smoke and fire rising from a fuel depot in Port Sudan, Sudan, May 6, 2025.'
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Screenshot of the original photo on Reuters' website, taken on May 12, 2025
The search results for the second photo revealed it was originally captured by Anadolu, a Turkish news agency, on the same date (archived here).
Its caption reads: 'Smoke rises after explosions at South Port of the city of Port Sudan, Sudan, on May 06, 2025. According to local sources, a series of loud explosions were heard in the area, followed by fires breaking out at the port.'
Reporting by AFP and other media describe fuel depots being hit but make no mention of any navy vessels being struck.
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Screenshot of the photo on Anadolu website, taken on May 12, 2025
The third image shows a map of armed groups in the Sudan civil war and their alliances with foreign forces, which was published in an article by the BBC (archived here).
Despite the claims in the post, none of the images depict Eritrean navy vessels being struck.