Alyurae-(Reuters) – Turkey has expanded its exports of armed drones by negotiating sales deals with Morocco and Ethiopia after their successful use in international conflicts, according to four sources familiar with the agreements.
Any drone shipments to Ethiopia risk stoking friction in already strained relations between Ankara and Cairo, which is at odds with Addis Ababa over a hydropower dam on the Blue Nile. read more
Two Egyptian security sources said Cairo had asked the United States and some European nations to help it freeze any deal. A third Egyptian source said any agreement would have to be raised and clarified in talks between Cairo and Ankara as they try to repair ties read more .
Turkey, Ethiopia and Morocco have not formally announced any armed drone deals but several sources familiar with the arrangements provided details to Reuters.
One Turkish official said Ethiopia and Morocco had both requested purchases of Bayraktar TB2 drones in agreements that could also include spare-part guarantees and training.
A diplomat who requested anonymity said separately that Morocco had received the first batch of armed drones it ordered in May. Ethiopia plans to acquire them but the status of that order is less clear, the envoy said.
The sources did not say how many drones were involved in the deals or provide financial details.
Ukraine and Turkey’s NATO partner Poland have also ordered armed drones, which military experts say are cheaper than market rivals made in Israel, China and the United States.
Official data show Turkey’s defence and aviation exports rose sharply to Morocco and Ethiopia in the past two months but do not provide details of drone sales.
Ethiopia’s military and the prime minister’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.
Morocco’s government was not immediately available to comment. Its military does not discuss procurements publicly.
Turkey’s top defence procurement and development body did not immediately respond to a written request for comment. Drone-maker Bayraktar, whose TB2 model was designed by President Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law, also did not respond to a request for comment.
SUCCESSFUL DEPLOYMENT
The growing interest in armed drones is a boost for the Turkish government at it tries to increase exports to help ease its economic problems, and underlines the growing importance of armed drones in modern warfare. read more
The Turkish military used drones last year in Syria as well as in Libya, where Ankara backed the Tripoli-based government against eastern forces supported by Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. read more
In Nagorno-Karabakh, the drones helped Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan defeat Armenia-backed forces.
Defence and aviation exports to Ethiopia rose to $51 million in the first three months of this year, from $203,000 in the same period last year, with a jump in August and September, according to the Turkish Exporters Assembly.
Exports to Morocco were $78.6 million in the same period – with $62 million in September alone – compared to $402,000 last year
Some media in Morocco have reported the arrival of armed drones from Turkey.
A Facebook page that identifies itself as an unofficial Moroccan military forum reported last month that the first TB2 drones from an order of 13 had arrived from Turkey, and that the armed forces had sent officers to Turkey for pilot training.
Overall Turkish defence and aviation exports totalled $2.1 billion in the first three quarters of this year, up 39% from $1.5 billion last year, according to the Turkish Exporters Assembly.
Ethiopian attack in two northern regions intensifies
Meanwhile An air and ground offensive by Ethiopian troops and their allies against rebellious forces from the northern Tigray region is intensifying, a spokesperson for the Tigrayan forces said on Wednesday, claiming “staggering” casualties.
Getachew Reda of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) told Reuters by phone that the Ethiopian military and allies from the Amhara region were fighting the Tigrayan forces on several fronts, in both the Amhara and Afar regions which neighbour Tigray.
A spokesperson for the Ethiopian military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The military and government have not acknowledged a fresh offensive, which the TPLF says began with air strikes last week, days after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was sworn in for a new five-year term. read more
“It’s an ongoing fight and the number of casualties is staggering,” Getachew said, adding that he could not give details of the number of dead or wounded. He said there was fighting near the town of Weldiya in Amhara and that fighting had resumed in Afar, in the Haro and Chifra areas near the Amhara border.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the situation on the ground or to confirm casualty numbers because the area is closed to journalists and many phone connections are down.
The fighting has raised fears that it could further destabilise the Horn of Africa nation of 109 million people and plunge Tigray deeper into famine. The conflict has already drawn in Ethiopia’s neighbour, the secretive and repressive nation of Eritrea, which sent troops across the border to support the Ethiopian military when the conflict erupted in November 2020.
Aid workers citing witnesses told Reuters that Eritrean fighters were still inside Ethiopia and taking part in the conflict.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Another humanitarian worker citing witnesses said Eritrean forces were fighting Tigrayans in Berhale, a town in the Afar region.
The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it was considering the use of economic sanctions to penalise parties responsible for the violence.
Thousands of civilians have been killed and millions displaced by fighting since war erupted in Tigray. Tigrayan forces were initially beaten back, but recaptured most of the region in July and pushed into the neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions, displacing hundreds of thousands more people.
Amhara claims the Western Tigray, a swathe of fertile farmland with a strategically important border with Sudan, which has been under Amhara control since the fighting began. Tigray’s borders are now surrounded by hostile forces and the United Nations says the government is blockading food aid to hundreds of thousands of starving people – a charge it denies.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that in Tigray more than 90% of the population needed food aid and about 400,000 people were living in famine-like conditions, based on the latest U.N. analysis.
“We are seeing acute malnutrition rates, at levels comparable to those we saw at the onset of the 2011 Somalia famine,” he said.
In that famine in Somalia, 260,000 people died.
Tedros said no medical supplies had gone into Tigray since July.
“Just a fraction of health facilities in Tigray remain operational due to a lack of fuel and supplies. People with chronic illnesses are dying due to lack of both food and medicine,” he told a news conference in Geneva.
The prime minister’s spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, and Lia Tadesse, the health minister, did not immediately respond to Reuters messages requesting comment on Tedros’ statement.
