Sighting record / 2015
Tuesday, 5 May 2015. Night over Omdurman, across the Nile from Khartoum. Radar at the Wadi Sayidna military zone picked up something flying low. Air defence crews opened fire. Residents heard blasts. One said the walls of the house shook and the explosion came four times. Another saw a flame in the sky and heard no aircraft. A caller told the police about a glowing entity overhead. The army called it a bright target. Then a plane or a rocket. Then a reconnaissance drone whose identity had not yet been uncovered. Debris fell on the city. Its origin was never announced.
Omdurman sits on the west bank of the Nile, facing Khartoum. North of the city lies the Wadi Sayidna military zone and Wadi Seidna Air Base, about 22 km north of Khartoum. Sudan had reasons to watch its skies. Israeli strikes had been reported on a convoy in eastern Sudan in March 2009. In October 2012 the Yarmouk arms factory in Khartoum was struck, and Sudan blamed Israel.