Sudan attack helicopter crashed near Ethiopia border
A Mi-24P/V or Mi-35 of the Al Quwwat al-Jawwiya as-Sudaniya (SAF, Sudanese Air Force) crashed near the Ethiopian border on 13 January 2021 as Sudanese officials have said. The three occupants survived the crash.
The attack helicopter crashed shortly after take-off from Wad Zayed, al-Showak airstrip in eastern Sudan that borders Ethiopia. The helicopter was based at nearby ad Damanzin air base and forward deployed to Wad Zayed. Ad Damanzin houses a detachment of the SAF 3 Helicopter Squadron. The squadron operates Mi-8/-17/-171 variants as well as the Mi-24P, Mi-24V and Mi-35. The Sudanese officials revealed that the HIND was fully armed, and exploded after crashing. The cause is not clear.
The area surrounding the Ethiopia-Sudan border has been tense since November 2020 following the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia and the Sudanese build-up of military presence.
The Sudanese government said an Ethiopian military aircraft crossed the border on the same day as the Sudanese helicopter crash. But this incident has nothing to do with the crash. The Ethiopian government warned Sudan on 12 January that it was running out of patience with Sudan's military build-up in the disputed border area. But both countries made clear that they want to avoid a war, but both would respond to any aggression.
Sudan and Ethiopia have more high-profile disputes with eachother. Bsides the regional Tigray, both countries are negotiating surrounding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile River. These talks conitnues hitting more snags. And that is also the reasobn that Sudan brought more troops and military hardware to the border areas with Ethiopia. On top of this, just recently, the Darfur area in western-Sudan also face another outbreak of violence. As known, the Sudanese military for year were involved in terrible fightings in Darfur with all kind af militias, rebels and the worse: its own Sudanese citizens and refugees.
Please have a look at Scramble's Air Orders of Battle of Sudan and Ethiopia and learn about the strengths of both regional powers.
Photo kindly provided via AirHistory.net