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.