Screenshot from a video showing Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries, El-Fasher, Sudan, October 26, 2025. AFP
The aircraft took off just before a new barrage of Iranian missiles and drones struck the United Arab Emirates. On Tuesday, March 17, around 7 pm, an A300 cargo plane departed – most likely from Fujairah airport, as its transponder was switched off at the time – en route to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
This was not the aircraft's first flight from the UAE to East or Central Africa. Over the past month, it made at least nine similar trips – though its final destinations are difficult to confirm, as this airspace is poorly monitored by flight tracking websites.
The plane, registered in the Central African Republic under TL-AIT since January, previously belonged to Gewan Airways. A subsidiary of NG9 Holding, which is partly owned by the conglomerate of the UAE president's brother, Mohammed bin Zayed, this air cargo company has repeatedly been flagged in the past for its involvement in the air bridge set up by Abu Dhabi to supply its Sudanese allies in the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) with weapons.
Since April 2023, these paramilitaries, led by General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, known as "Hemedti," have waged a devastating war against the regular Sudanese army, which is commanded by General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan.
