Rapid Support Forces Commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo visited Addis Ababa unannounced on August 26, as fighting intensified along the Ethiopia-Sudan border. A newly published evidentiary assessment reveals an active Ethiopian military installation in Asosa has functioned as a rear base for the militia’s eastern campaign.
When Rapid Support Forces Commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo quietly touched down in the Ethiopian capital last week, the front lines along the border were already raging. The unannounced August 26 visit marked his second trip to Addis Ababa since the war broke out, following a formal December 2023 journey that yielded a political declaration with Abdalla Hamdok.
While Ethiopian officials maintain that Addis Ababa’s immediate priority is keeping Sudan’s conflict from spilling across the frontier, Sudanese intelligence views the diplomatic engagement through a different lens. According to a Sudanese intelligence source, Ethiopia could factor the paramilitary group into its own domestic security arrangements, particularly amid renewed regional tensions involving Tigray. Such an alignment would potentially grant Addis Ababa expanded operational latitude on the Sudanese side of the border.
The Evidence Behind the Asosa Military Base Operations
The diplomatic maneuvering unfolds alongside concrete findings regarding military supply lines. A comprehensive evidentiary assessment titled Rear Base: Ethiopian Territory and the Rapid Support Forces’ Eastern Front was published in September 2026 by African Narratives. The report consolidates eight months of separate investigations by Reuters, the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab, Le Monde, and Middle East Eye, grading their principal claims by confidence level.
“The evidence establishes with high confidence that Ethiopian territory, including an active military installation, has functioned as the rear base for RSF operations on Sudan’s eastern front. It does not yet establish the level at which this was authorised … The principal obstacle to closing that gap is Ethiopia’s documented refusal to respond to international inquiry.”
African Narratives, Rear Base, September 2026
Investigators distinguished between two distinct locations often conflated in earlier reports: a new construction site in the Menge district and a functioning Ethiopian National Defence Force installation in Asosa.
Commercial pickups arrive at the fenced compound on the western edge of Asosa painted white and leave matte green with heavy machine guns bolted to their beds. Investigators noted that workers routinely painted over front bumpers and obscured corporate logos while leaving door panels and footrests bright factory white.
Internal Documents Detail Logistics and Training Camps
Internal records recovered from within the security apparatus provide specific figures regarding the scale of the operation. An internal note from Ethiopia’s security services, reviewed by Reuters, documented that 4,300 RSF fighters were undergoing training at the Menge site as of early January. That same document asserted that their logistical and military supplies are being provided by the UAE
.
A diplomatic cable from November 2025 corroborated the facility’s expansion, noting it was built to accommodate up to 10,000 fighters with dozens of Land Cruisers, heavy trucks, and Emirati trainers arriving as early as October. Ethiopia’s own intelligence note specifically named General Getachew Gudina, Chief of the Defence Intelligence Department of the Ethiopian National Defence Force, as the officer responsible for establishing the camp—a role confirmed by a senior Ethiopian official and four diplomatic and security sources.
Shifting Front Lines in Blue Nile, Darfur, and Kordofan
On the ground inside Sudan, the Sudanese military faces an increasingly precarious position following the loss of strategic border towns like Geisan and Kurmuk in Blue Nile State. Military forces are currently attempting to halt the paramilitary advance toward the regional capital of Damazin. A significant military buildup observed since July at the Asosa base threatens to make the cross-border corridor into Kurmuk and Geisan far more difficult for the national army to penetrate, according to Mada Masr.
As the RSF presses against defensive positions guarding Damazin—capturing locations such as Bakori and Sirkum—the military has rushed reinforcements into the state capital. Simultaneously, the RSF is fortifying Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, digging extensive sand berms and trenches in anticipation of a possible surprise attack. In North Kordofan, the conflict saw a notable defection when Abu Bakr Dahloub, the RSF’s intelligence chief for special missions in Hamra al-Sheikh and the border triangle, defected to the military alongside approximately 200 fighters.
По теме
