Rapid Support Forces drone strikes hit key targets in Port Sudan

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces continue to heighten attacks in Port Sudan, after launching their first strikes on the eastern Sudanese city this weekend.

The RSF unleashed drones on key targets early Tuesday, hitting the city’s airport, its port and a hotel, according to military officials. 

Witnesses saw and heard multiple explosions, fires and plumes of dark smoke. There was no immediate word on any casualties or the extent of the damage. Data from the Cairo airport in neighbouring Egypt shows that the attack disrupted air traffic at the Port Sudan airport.

This is the latest attack in an escalation campaign that began on Sunday, when the RSF struck Port Sudan for the first time since the beginning of the Sudanese civil war in 2023.  

On Sunday, a military ammunition warehouse in the Othman Daqna airbase was hit, followed by the targeting of fuel depots on Monday.  In both cases, military sources blamed the RSF. The paramilitary has not claimed responsibility. 

Port Sudan was once seen as a safe zone. It had become the de facto seat of the army-aligned government since the RSF first invaded Khartoum two years ago. UN and aid agencies have also set up their headquarters in Port Sudan.

The city also welcomed hundreds of thousands of displaced people. The recent attacks are likely to worsen the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. 

Nearly 25 million people face extreme hunger, half of Sudan's population, according to Shaun Hughes, the World Food Program’s emergency coordinator for Sudan and the region. “By any metric, this is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis", Hughes said ahead of the second anniversary of the war in April 2025.

The conflict has displaced 13 million people, including 8.6 million within Sudan, according to the UN refugee agency.

Sudan plunged into war in April 2023 when tensions exploded between the military government of general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Fighting started in the country's capital, Khartoum, before spreading out to the rest of the country.

At least 24,000 people have been killed since then, though the number is likely far higher.

Two years into the war, the army has regained control of Khartoum and has succeeded in pushing the RSF out of most of central Sudan, while the paramilitary has shifted tactics from ground incursions to drone attacks.