RSF drone strike hits Port Sudan in third day of attacks on Sudanese wartime capital

Airport, port and military base among sites hit as two-year civil war escalates

Several drone attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces hit Sudan's de facto capital on Tuesday, igniting fires and causing a power cut in the Red Sea city, which is now at the centre of the two-year civil war between the military and the RSF.

Tuesday's attacks hit Port Sudan's international airport, large fuel depots at the port, a power station and a military base, according to witnesses.

Also attacked was a luxury hotel 200 metres from the presidential palace, in a district home to diplomatic missions and UN offices, they said.

The attack on the fuel depots at the port ignited a fire and created a large cloud of black smoke.

The attacks were the third on Port Sudan in as many days. The RSF has not yet claimed responsibility for the drone strikes. The army has yet to publicly comment on the attacks on Monday and Tuesday.

"The situation is very dangerous and worrying. We expect a hike in food prices and transport costs," said Port Sudan resident Nasreldeen Ezzeldeen. "Traffic and daily life in general have not been affected by the attacks, but security has been stepped up, with police and army checkpoints in some areas."

Hours after Tuesday's attacks, long queues of cars formed at the city's petrol stations, witnesses said.

On Sunday, drones hit the military section of the city's international airport, causing several explosions when a munitions depot was attacked.

This satellite image shows a fire at a fuel tank farm after a drone attack outside Port Sudan on Tuesday. AP / Planet Labs PBC

A day later, the drones hit the nation's main fuel depot, causing large fires. Monday's attack will probably affect the economy, causing fuel shortages and food price increases, adding to the already difficult task of delivering humanitarian aid to millions of hungry Sudanese.

There were no reports of casualties from the attacks.

Port Sudan has been the de facto capital of Sudan since shortly after the RSF overran Khartoum in the early days of the war.

It is home to the military-backed government, the armed forces' leadership and hundreds of thousands of Sudanese displaced by the war in the Afro-Arab nation.

Port Sudan, about 650km east of Khartoum, had until Sunday been spared the ravages of the war. There were no reports of unusually heavy traffic leaving the city after the drone attacks.

But the attacks are a major escalation in the civil war, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced more than 13 million people and left about 26 million – more than half the population – facing acute hunger.

Authorities on Tuesday evacuated the airport at Port Sudan and suspended flights indefinitely, witnesses said. It is the only airport in the country to receive commercial international flights, with Khartoum airport closed since the start of the war.

Sudan's war began when months of tension between two generals - army chief Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and RSF commander Gen Mohamed Dagalo - turned into an open conflict. Both men claim to be fighting for the restoration of democratic rule and economic prosperity, but they are widely believed to be vying for power in the resource-rich nation.

Following a string of battlefield successes in recent months, the army regained control of central Sudan and the capital. It continues to control eastern and northern Sudan. The RSF controls most of the vast Darfur region and parts of Kordofan to the south-west and the south.

The attacks on Port Sudan have drawn condemnation from Egypt and Saudi Arabia. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the attacks on Port Sudan were a "worrying development threatening the protection of civilians and humanitarian operations".

Nearly all humanitarian aid into Sudan arrives through the city. This week's attacks also open a new front when many expected the fighting to shift to Darfur and Kordofan, after the RSF was pushed out of Khartoum.

The expansion of hostilities into the east threatens to prolong the conflict. The war also carries the potential to draw Sudan's neighbouring countries.

Of the 13 million Sudanese displaced by the fighting, about three million have found refuge abroad, mostly in Egypt, Chad, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Sudan, said the attacks on Port Sudan will "deepen humanitarian suffering and needs" because they will compound difficulties already faced by agencies delivering aid to the needy in Africa's third largest country.

"Damage to critical infrastructure could also disrupt supply chains and increase the price of basic goods, further exacerbating human suffering in what's already the world's largest humanitarian crisis," she said.

Al Shafie Ahmed reported from Kampala, Uganda