Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Sunday attacked with drones a military airbase that is part of the international airport at the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, the first attack of any kind on the de facto capital since the Sudanese civil war broke out two years ago.
Military spokesman Brig Gen Nabil Abdullah said the suicide drones attacked an ammunition depot, triggering a series of explosions. They also hit a warehouse and several civilian installations he did not specify. There were no casualties, he added.
Videos shared online and shot minutes after the drones struck purported to show a large ball of fire followed by a cloud of dark smoke near the airport's tarmac. The National could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage.
Sunday's attack on the air force's Osman Dukna base in Port Sudan signals a dangerous shift in the course of the war between the RSF and the armed forces. While the use of drones by the RSF will not win territory for the paramilitary, it will have a psychologically disturbing impact on civilians in army-controlled areas and undermine the military's image as the nation's protector.
Port Sudan lies about 650 kilometres from the nearest known RSF positions on the outskirts of Khartoum to the West.
On Saturday, Kassala airport was also targeted by RSF drones, according to witnesses in the city in the eastern region of Sudan.
Officials said flights were temporarily suspended at Port Sudan airport pending a review of the security situation at the site. Already, a Port Sudan-bound flight from Addis Ababa scheduled for Sunday afternoon was cancelled, according to a passenger who spoke to The National. Five domestic flights also scheduled for Sunday were cancelled, said the officials.
Port Sudan has been the de facto capital of Sudan since not long after the RSF overran most of Khartoum in the early days of the war. Army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan escaped there following months of being besieged by RSF fighters at the armed troops headquarters in Khartoum.
Port Sudan now is the seat of the military-backed government and is home to the only international airport in areas controlled by the army. It is also used as the main base for foreign diplomats and UN agencies.
The army regained control of Khartoum international airport in March as part of an offensive that rid the city of the RSF, but it remains closed to this day.
The RSF, which has not commented on Sunday's attack, has in recent weeks attacked power stations in army-controlled locations in central and northern Sudan, causing power cuts and raising speculation that the paramilitary might take the fighting to parts of Sudan that had not been touched by the war.
The recent spate of drone attacks followed the RSF's withdrawal from the sprawling, Nile-side capital and appear to make good on pledges by RSF commanders that no place in Sudan would be safe from the paramilitary.
Sudan's civil war, the latest in a series of domestic conflicts to plague Sudan since independence nearly 70 years ago, broke out when months of tension between the army and RSF, led by Gen Mohamed Dagalo, turned into open conflict. Both generals profess to be fighting for Sudan's democracy and prosperity.
The army controls the capital as well as north, east and central Sudan, while the RSF controls most of the vast western Darfur region and parts of Kordofan to the south-west and the south.
The war has left tens of thousands dead and displaced at least 13 million people. About 26 million in Sudan, more than half the population, face acute hunger, with pockets of famine surfacing across the vast, Afro-Arab nation.
The war, according to experts, carries the potential of turning into a regional conflict, drawing in some of Sudan's neighbours, like Chad, South Sudan and Libya.
Al Shafie Ahmed reported from Kampala, Uganda
