How Ethiopia’s Involvement in the Sudanese Civil War Threatens US Interests

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The United States has much to lose from Ethiopia’s backing of the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan—and the Trump administration should use its leverage to curtail it.

Ethiopia has become the newest co-belligerent in the Sudanese Civil War as the conflict approaches its three-year anniversary in April. Ethiopia’s growing role in Sudan complicates peace efforts, threatens to intertwine the Sudanese civil war with a brewing conflict in northern Ethiopia, and could undermine major US business deals in the country. Billions of dollars of US private and public investment into Ethiopia’s plans to become Africa’s largest air hub could—and should—be at risk if Ethiopia continues to fuel instability at the expense of US peace efforts and other US interests in the Red Sea and Middle East.

Ethiopia Is Backing the Rapid Support Forces

In late 2025, Ethiopia began allowing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a rebel faction located in southwestern Sudan, to use western Ethiopia as a rear base—seemingly at the behest of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the RSF’s main foreign backer and a close Ethiopian ally. Sudanese officials and open-source analysts have accused Ethiopia of hosting an Emirati-funded rear base for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) near its border with eastern Sudan. Reuters confirmed the existence of the base in early February 2026, estimating that over 4,000 RSF fighters were training at the base as of early January. The UAE has flown dozens of weapon shipments to Ethiopia that were tracked to the border area since November 2025.

Ethiopia has become more directly involved in backing the RSF throughout 2026. Flight tracking data shows that Ethiopian Airlines may be directly trafficking weapons to the RSF rear base in western Ethiopia since February 2026. At least two Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800s made a collective eight flights since February 23 along known UAE-linked weapons trafficking air corridors between Chad and western Ethiopia, using the military aprons of airports. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)–backed government separately claimed in early March that the RSF had been launching drone strikes from Ethiopia since February. Ethiopia formally denied the drone accusation, but all signs point toward deepening Ethiopian involvement in........

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