Smoke billows after drone strikes by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) targeted the northern port in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, on Tuesday. /AP hide caption
Sudan's temporary capital city, Port Sudan, previously a safe haven during the country's two-year civil war, has come under attack for the first time by a series of drone strikes for consecutive days.
The strikes, launched by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for the third day, attacked a terminal at the city's airport overnight on Tuesday. All flights have been grounded, local officials told NPR.
The popular Marina Hotel, opposite the newly built presidential palace, and the city went without power, eyewitnesses said. Possibly casualty numbers were not immediately clear.
The strikes on Tuesday followed attacks on a military warehouse near the airport, civilian infrastructure and an oil depot on the southern outskirts of the city on Sunday and Monday, which sent vast plumes gushing into the sky.
The attacks on the wartime capital, where thousands have taken refuge, has caused shockwaves in Sudan and deepened its rift with the United Arab Emirates. Sudanese officials said the RSF attacks on Port Sudan were made possible by weapons supplied by the UAE, which has been widely accused by Sudan and others of arming the paramilitaries. The United Arab Emirates strongly denies this.
On Tuesday, Sudan cut diplomatic ties with the UAE. Sudan's defense minister, Yassin Ibrahim, said in a televised statement that Sudan had declared the United Arab Emirates "aggressor state," and said the UAE had escalated its support to the RSF, "supplying the rebellion with advanced strategic weapons."
Lt. Gen. Mahjoub Bishara, the army's Red Sea commander, said that 11 "suicide drones" targeted the Osman Digna air base and other facilities near Port Sudan International Airport on Sunday.
The war in Sudan has killed as many as 150,000 people, according to some estimates, and has led to the world's largest humanitarian crisis and worst famine in decades, according to the United Nations. More than 15 million people have been displaced, one of every three of the country's prewar population.
The drone strikes are the first on the de-facto capital, along the Red Sea where the military-led transitional government is based. According to the U.N., about a quarter of a million refugees have fled to the state where Port Sudan resides since the civil war erupted in April 2023.
The city became the temporary capital after the paramilitary RSF took over Khartoum in the early months of the war. In March, after intense fighting, the army recaptured it for the first time.
A sleepy port city before the war, Port Sudan became one of the few places during the conflict where many have tried to rebuild their lives.
NPR reported from Port Sudan last month when cranes dotted the skyline with new businesses and infrastructure being built across the city. Government ministries, diplomatic missions and nongovernmental organizations have been based there, moving from the capital Khartoum that the war has left in ruins.
A popular hotel close to the residence of Sudan's leader, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, was also attacked, according to local reports. Images posted on Sudanese media showed the main hall covered in debris.
Drone attacks by the RSF have rapidly increased as the paramilitary group has lost ground in the war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), who have recaptured several cities in central and eastern Sudan over the last year.
A major dam and one of the main power stations, providing electricity to most of northern Sudan has also been repeatedly struck by the RSF. Last month, NPR witnessed engineers rushing to repair the power station in Atbara, a town 300 miles south of Port Sudan that has been a sanctuary for thousands of displaced people. But the power station was struck again a week later as well as a displacement camp where a mother and her four children were killed.
An airport in Kassala, a town in eastern Sudan, near its borders with Ethiopia and Eritrea, was also struck on Saturday.
