Tripoli (Somalia Today) — A remote airstrip in southeastern Libya has become a key supply gateway for Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, according to military, intelligence, and diplomatic officials cited by Reuters.
The airstrip at Kufrah — long a quiet outpost on the edge of the Sahara — has been renovated and has received repeated cargo flights since the spring, the Reuters investigation said, citing satellite imagery, flight tracking data, and open-source videos.
The development has intensified scrutiny of supply networks that have internationalised Sudan’s war. It has also revived allegations that the United Arab Emirates has backed the RSF, which Abu Dhabi denies.
The RSF grew out of the Janjaweed militia mobilised during the Darfur conflict two decades ago. It has fought Sudan’s army since April 2023, after a dispute over integrating forces derailed the transition.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions. Humanitarian agencies and U.N. assessments say parts of the country have tipped into famine-like conditions.
Supply artery
Officials quoted by Reuters said supplies routed through Kufrah helped the RSF rebuild after the Sudanese army retook Khartoum in March. They said the route later supported RSF operations in Darfur, where key towns have become central to the war’s trajectory.
A U.N. official familiar with RSF operations told Reuters the Kufrah route had “changed the whole game.” The official said it provided a conduit for supplies and fighters.
Kufrah sits in a desert region controlled by forces aligned with Libya’s eastern authorities.
Reuters reported that local commanders there are allied with the UAE, a Gulf power facing repeated accusations of supporting the RSF. The Emirati government has denied backing either side in Sudan.
Attention has also focused on other routes. A U.N. Panel of Experts report on Sudan cited “credible” accusations that weapons flowed to the RSF via an airstrip in Amdjarass, eastern Chad. Abu Dhabi denied those allegations.
The report described how new supply lines altered the balance of force in Darfur.
Meanwhile, a GI-TOC analysis said flight activity appeared to shift north toward Kufrah as air traffic into eastern Chad declined. It linked the change to evolving frontlines and desert logistics.
Libya’s fragmentation provides part of the backdrop. The country has been split for years between rival authorities and armed coalitions. Both sides have faced accusations of trafficking weapons, drugs, and migrants.
Reuters cited a Dec. 1 assessment from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime on long-standing trafficking ties in eastern Libya.
In its December paper, Collateral Circuits, the organisation said Sudan’s war has revived older desert corridors and strengthened illicit markets.
Paper trails
The Reuters investigation described visible upgrades at Kufrah airport, including a new frontage and landscaping.
It also reported a sharp increase in large cargo aircraft across spring and summer. The pattern intensified ahead of major shifts on the Darfur front, it said.
Some flights, Reuters reported, involved airlines previously cited in U.N. reporting on Libya’s conflict-era air bridges. A U.N. expert report on Libya described carriers linked to the movement of military equipment during earlier phases of the war there.
Reuters identified one Ilyushin-76 cargo aircraft, tail number EX-76008. It said the plane flew from Dubai to Kufrah on June 5, then later arrived in Kufrah from Bosaso in Somalia’s Puntland region.
The Bosaso leg appears in the Reuters account as a single datapoint within a wider logistics web. Still, it shows how supply routes linked to Sudan’s war can intersect with regional air corridors.
Reuters said the aircraft was operated by a Kyrgyz carrier cited in U.N. reporting on Libya’s conflict-era air transport.
It also reported that two other Ilyushin aircraft operated by another Kyrgyz firm landed in Kufrah. The operator had previously been accused in U.N. reporting of trafficking weapons from the UAE to eastern Libya, Reuters said.
Neither operator offered a substantive comment to Reuters. It also said a UAE-based aircraft owner and other entities it contacted did not respond.
Staging ground
Open-source investigators have separately pointed to RSF-linked activity south of Kufrah. The Centre for Information Resilience said it traced vehicles and fighters at a camp in the area to Darfur, using satellite imagery and geolocation.
The camp’s appearance, combined with rising flight activity into Kufrah, has reinforced concerns among diplomats and analysts that resupply pipelines remain intact even as frontlines shift.
Those pipelines matter because the war’s centre of gravity has moved to Darfur. Civilian communities there have suffered some of the conflict’s worst abuses.
A U.N. report cited by the Associated Press described mass killings at Zamzam displacement camp during an RSF attack linked to the broader siege of el-Fasher.
The RSF and Sudan’s army have each blamed the other for atrocities. International officials and rights groups say sustained access to resupply reduces incentives to compromise and prolongs the war.
For regional actors, the Kufrah focus highlights a wider enforcement dilemma.
Borderlands often evade oversight when armed groups, smugglers, and commercial intermediaries blur civilian cargo and military supply.
U.N. reporting on Libya has repeatedly warned that embargo regimes weaken when logistics chains cross jurisdictions and rely on opaque ownership.
