PORT SUDAN: A drone strike targeted Sudan’s biggest naval base Wednesday, an army source told AFP, marking the fourth straight day the seat of the army-backed government has come under attack.
“They (the drones) were met with anti-aircraft missiles,” the source said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
An AFP correspondent reported a series of explosions early Wednesday and then a cloud of smoke coming from the direction of the Flamingo Base, just north of the city.
Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast had been a safe haven, hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced people and United Nations offices, until Sunday when drone strikes blamed on the RSF began.
Drones struck across Port Sudan on Tuesday, hitting the main port, the city’s power station and the country’s last functioning international airport.
Nearly 600 kilometers (375 miles) south, “three drones attempted to strike airport facilities” in the army-held eastern city of Kassala, near the border with Eritrea, a security source said Wednesday.
Witnesses told AFP they heard explosions from anti-aircraft missiles west of the city, which has also come under repeated attack this week.
Nationwide, the war has killed tens of thousands of peoople and uprooted 13 million.
The RSF has not directly commented on this week’s attacks on Port Sudan, about 650 kilometers (400 miles) from its nearest known positions on the outskirts of greater Khartoum.
The strikes have raised fears of disruption to humanitarian aid across Sudan, where famine has already been declared in some areas and nearly 25 million people are suffering dire food insecurity.
UN relief chief Tom Fletcher said he was “very concerned by ongoing drone strikes on Port Sudan, a hub for our humanitarian operations and key entry point for aid.”
Nearly all aid into Sudan flows through the port city, which the United Nations has called “a lifeline for humanitarian operations.”
It has warned of more “human suffering in what is already the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.”
Wednesday’s attack comes a day after Sudan cut ties with the UAE, accusing it of supplying weapons used by the RSF to strike Port Sudan and declaring the Gulf country an “aggressor” state.
The long-distance drone campaign comes after the RSF lost control of nearly all of greater Khartoum in March, after holding it virtually since the start of the war.
The war has effectively split Sudan in two, with the army controlling the center, north and east while the RSF holds nearly all of Darfur in the west and parts of the south.
Drone strike hits Port Sudan navy base
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Drone strike hits Port Sudan navy base
- “This was not a tragic accident. It was a calculated, unlawful attack on a protected medical facility,” Sooka
- “The aerial bombing of the MSF hospital in Old Fangak is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law”
Women bearing brunt of Sudan’s acute hunger crisis, UN says
- Germany plans to host aid conference around anniversary of 2023 outbreak of civil war in April
GENEVA: Women are bearing the brunt of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, with the majority of female-headed households not having enough food to eat, the UN said on Friday.
“Female-headed households are now three times more likely to be food insecure. Three-quarters of these households report not having enough to eat,” Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said in Geneva.
“Hunger is becoming increasingly gendered,” he added, pointing to pre-existing gender inequalities in the country being exacerbated by the ongoing conflict, which entered its 1,000th day on Friday.
UN Women has previously warned that women face the risk of sexual violence while searching for food.
UN agencies called for immediate international action to provide aid to the Darfur city of El-Fasher, taken by the Rapid Support Forces in late October, as well as to Kadugli, another besieged city in Sudan’s south. Both cities are facing famine.
More than 100,000 are estimated to have fled El-Fasher since the RSF took control there following an 18-month siege.
OCHA said it is seeking to make Sudan the first country to sign an agreement with the US to receive part of the $2 billion in assistance it pledged at the end of December.
More than 21 million people are currently estimated to be acutely food insecure across the country. Some 34 million people are in need of humanitarian support, half of whom are children, according to the UN.
OCHA said it did not yet have an update on plans to return to El-Fasher, following international aid staff’s initial assessment of the city in December, since its takeover by the RSF.
Germany plans to host a Sudan aid conference in the spring to raise emergency relief funds.
The conference would be held around the anniversary of the 2023 outbreak of the civil war in April, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.
“Today, the world commemorates a sad date: 1,000 days of war in Sudan,” she said in Berlin.
“Far too many people continue to suffer and die there, victims of hunger, thirst, displacement, and rape.” Previous Sudan aid conferences were held in Paris in 2024 and London in 2025.
“The world’s largest humanitarian crisis has already driven millions of civilians into poverty and many tens of thousands to their deaths,” the spokeswoman said.
“Germany is doing everything in its power, both politically and in humanitarian terms, to help the people on the ground and to end the fighting.”
