AGrade A: Official recordStrongest record: official record
5 documented ties · 1 step from the SAF
Also recorded as: Eritrea (training and arming of eastern Sudanese armed groups); Eritrea – Burhan's public thanks; Eritrean navy vessels received at Port Sudan; Eritrea – six training camps in Gash-Barka for eastern Sudanese groups and one Darfur movement; Eritrean Navy – port call at Port Sudan announced by the Sudanese Navy (July 2024)
In Asmara on 26 Nov 2024 Burhan thanked Eritrea's government for 'positions supportive of Sudan'. Separately the Sudanese Navy announced on 26 July 2024 that it had received Eritrean naval vessels at Port Sudan; the Eritrean force commander said the visit was on President Isaias's instructions to affirm Eritrea's stand with Sudan.
Their response
No Eritrean government response found in sources accessed.
Al Jazeera Net (Feb 2024) notes official Eritrean silence, neither confirming nor denying; Al-Sayha refers to repeated official Eritrean denials. Atar reports some groups later declared neutrality between SAF and RSF.
Records
8
Each record carries its own grade. A grade describes the source for that record, not the actor.
AGrade A: Official record
Eritrea – Burhan's public thanks; Eritrean navy vessels received at Port Sudan
In Asmara on 26 Nov 2024 Burhan thanked Eritrea's government for 'positions supportive of Sudan'. Separately the Sudanese Navy announced on 26 July 2024 that it had received Eritrean naval vessels at Port Sudan; the Eritrean force commander said the visit was on President Isaias's instructions to affirm Eritrea's stand with Sudan.
Fact-check
None found for the port call.
Source
official SAF-side (Transitional Sovereignty Council media office channel; presents as official, signed 'إعلام مجلس السيادة الانتقالي', active since 2020; not cross-verified from a government website)
What Eritrea and Sudan say officially: 'substantial and continuous support', with no military content stated
September 2023 - September 2026
Eritrea's Ministry of Information records regular leader-level contact: Burhan in Asmara on 11 September 2023, 26 November 2024, 10 April 2025, 17 July 2026 and 4 September 2026, and President Isaias in Port Sudan on 29 November 2025, where he also met the prime minister and the Darfur governor Minni Minawi. On 10 April 2025 the ministry quoted Isaias that Eritrea's support 'emanates from solid principles and moral obligations' and said Burhan 'paid tribute to the substantial and continuous support extended by the Government and people of Eritrea'. In November 2025 Isaias 'reiterated Eritrea's commitment to supporting Sudan'; the September 2026 visit was described as part of a 'periodic consultative framework'. None of the statements mentions weapons, training, airfields or ports.
Response
No Eritrean statement confirming or denying training camps, hosting of aircraft or arms transit was found. No Eritrean reply to the RSF leader's June 2025 warning was found.
›Research notes
Official statements, read through page summaries; the 17 July 2026 item is a one-paragraph notice. Sources marked summary_only were read through an automated page summary; quotations from them should be checked against the page before publication.
Eritrea (training and arming of eastern Sudanese armed groups)
Multiple outlets report that at least four eastern Sudanese militias aligned with SAF trained in camps inside Eritrea from 2023; a researcher for Al Jazeera Centre for Studies lists the groups and leaders.
Response
Al Jazeera Net (Feb 2024) notes official Eritrean silence, neither confirming nor denying; Al-Sayha refers to repeated official Eritrean denials. Atar reports some groups later declared neutrality between SAF and RSF.
Eritrea – six training camps in Gash-Barka for eastern Sudanese groups and one Darfur movement
Radio Dabanga (20 Jan 2024), citing military sources: six training camps set up in Eritrea's Gash-Barka region for five armed groups from eastern Sudan and one from Darfur (names the United Popular Front for Liberation and Justice, Eastern Sudan Liberation Forces, Beja National Congress, Beja Armed Congress, and SLM-Minnawi).
Fact-check
No Eritrean comment recorded.
Source
independent (Radio Dabanga, exile broadcaster based in Amsterdam)
Eritrean Navy – port call at Port Sudan announced by the Sudanese Navy (July 2024)
Radio Dabanga (27–28 July 2024): the Sudanese Armed Forces – Naval Forces announced on Friday the reception of Eritrean naval vessels; the Eritrean force's commander said the visit implemented President Isaias Afwerki's directives and affirmed the Eritrean leadership's stand with the Sudanese people.
Fact-check
None.
Source
independent (Radio Dabanga, exile broadcaster based in Amsterdam)
SAF combat aircraft moved to Eritrean airfields after the May 2025 drone attacks on Port Sudan
May - June 2025
Mada Masr reported on 7 June 2025, citing a senior military official at Osman Digna airbase in Port Sudan, that all fighter jets stationed there were relocated to 'Eritrean airports' after the RSF drone attacks that began on 4 May 2025, that the aircraft underwent maintenance in Eritrea, that Eritrean warships were deployed off the Sudanese coast, and that Eritrea trained 'thousands of fighters from Darfur's armed movements'. The airfield is not named and no imagery has been published. RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo on about 2 June 2025 'warned Eritrea against continuing to support the army with equipment and fighters'.
Response
None found from Eritrea or the SAF.
›Research notes
Single independent outlet, single unnamed source. The Dagalo statement is a party's accusation and adds no evidence. Mada Masr's own page returned HTTP 403 to the shell and was read through the fetch tool's summary.
Ally of the SAF on the eastern border; hosted training camps for eastern Sudanese armed groups later integrated with the SAF; reported host of relocated SAF aircraft and alleged transit route for weapons.
Why this grade
Regraded: the cited article is labelled sponsored content.
Response
No Eritrean government response found in sources accessed.
Arms transit through Eritrea (Massawa, Assab, Asmara): not established; the sources are partisan or paid
2025
Claims that Iranian and Turkish weapons reach the SAF through Eritrean ports and airports trace to three kinds of source, none adequate. (1) An article in The Reporter (Ethiopia) of 17 June 2025, cited in the first pass, is labelled 'Sponsored Contents' and attributes every claim to unnamed 'reports'. (2) Horn Review, an Ethiopia-based outlet, asserts that Mohajer-6 and TB2 systems arrived via Asmara in June 2025 and that Iranian-linked aircraft landed at Massawa in November 2025, citing 'multiple witnesses and intelligence sources' and unspecified imagery. (3) An open-source flight-tracking account relayed by a Dutch blog lists Belarus-registered aircraft (an Il-76 of Rubystar and Il-62s of Rada Airlines) flying towards Eritrea in August and November 2025; the blog itself notes that 'some say this is transport of weapons for Houthis'. Neither UN Panel of Experts report (S/2024/65, S/2025/239) nor the UN Fact-Finding Mission's September 2026 report mentions Eritrea as a transit route, training base or supplier to the SAF.
Response
No Eritrean response found.
›Research notes
Ethiopia and Eritrea are adversaries and Ethiopia is named by the UN mission on the RSF side, so Ethiopian outlets are party-aligned on this question. The first-pass entry citing The Reporter should be downgraded and flagged as sponsored content. Rubystar and Rada Airlines are on the OFAC SDN list under Belarus and Russia programmes, not for Sudan.