Earlier this month, Sudanese army sources said that Port Sudan and areas near the border with Eritrea were hit by drone strikes carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Shortly thereafter, coordinated posts were published on Ethiopian social media purporting that the RSF had announced strikes on Eritrean navy vessels in the Red Sea. However, this is false. The RSF did not make any such public announcements, and there have been no reports of Eritrean vessels being damaged in the drone strikes. Photos accompanying the posts only showed smoke caused by the strikes in Port Sudan while Reuters, which originally published one of the photos, specified in its caption that a fuel depot had caught fire.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\nA Facebook post<\/a>, published in Amharic on May 11, 2025, contains a headline that reads: \u201cBreaking news: Eritrean navy has been attacked by drones.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cLt 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,\u201d the post says.<\/p>\n
\u201cShabia\u201d refers to the Eritrean government.<\/p>\n
Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commonly referred to as Hemedti, is the leader of Sudan\u2019s RSF paramilitary.<\/p>\n
Since 2023, the RSF has been fighting against the country\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\nScreenshot of the false post, taken on May 12, 2025 <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe post continues: \u201cThe report, accompanied by photos and published yesterday, said that the next targets will be Asmara and the port of Massawa.\u201d<\/p>\n
Massawa is an Eritrean port on the Red Sea.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Shabia anti-piracy warships were deployed to the coastal areas to defend al-Burhan, while Lieutenant General Hemedti\u2019s RSF attacked Port Sudan with modern drones for three days in a row,\u201d the post adds.<\/p>\n
Eritrea has a small navy force<\/a> with high-speed boats that patrol the Red Sea (archived here<\/a>).<\/p>\nThe 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.<\/p>\n
AFP Fact Check found that the claim is being shared in a coordinated manner on Ethiopian Facebook accounts.<\/p>\n
An overview of these accounts shows that most of them publish pro-Ethiopian government content and include the words \u201cbreaking news\u201d, \u201cupdate\u201d, or \u201cmedia\u201d in their names.<\/p>\n\n![\"<span>Screenshots](\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/.OKSU52lcq2RGd6ww58osA--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU2OQ--\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/afp_factcheck_us_713\/d9c1e0e474cfb050c40300003f664e4e\"\/)
\u201cLt 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,\u201d the post says.<\/p>\n
\u201cShabia\u201d refers to the Eritrean government.<\/p>\n
Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commonly referred to as Hemedti, is the leader of Sudan\u2019s RSF paramilitary.<\/p>\n
Since 2023, the RSF has been fighting against the country\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Screenshot of the false post, taken on May 12, 2025 <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The post continues: \u201cThe report, accompanied by photos and published yesterday, said that the next targets will be Asmara and the port of Massawa.\u201d<\/p>\n Massawa is an Eritrean port on the Red Sea.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Shabia anti-piracy warships were deployed to the coastal areas to defend al-Burhan, while Lieutenant General Hemedti\u2019s RSF attacked Port Sudan with modern drones for three days in a row,\u201d the post adds.<\/p>\n Eritrea has a small navy force<\/a> with high-speed boats that patrol the Red Sea (archived here<\/a>).<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n AFP Fact Check found that the claim is being shared in a coordinated manner on Ethiopian Facebook accounts.<\/p>\n An overview of these accounts shows that most of them publish pro-Ethiopian government content and include the words \u201cbreaking news\u201d, \u201cupdate\u201d, or \u201cmedia\u201d in their names.<\/p>\n