A wave of drone attacks on Tuesday severely damaged critical infrastructure in Port Sudan, plunging the strategic Red Sea city into darkness and disrupting water, health, and aviation services, according to Sudan’s electricity company and multiple eyewitness accounts. The strikes, believed to have been launched by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), targeted a major power station, the international airport, a fuel depot, a military base, and a hotel near the current presidential palace and the residence of army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. This marks the third consecutive day of attacks on Port Sudan—a city that had previously remained untouched by the country’s two-year civil war.
According to the AFP, drones struck the civilian section of Port Sudan airport, a UN-populated hotel, and a key army installation in the city’s center. A fuel depot near the southern port, where much of the government and international humanitarian community has relocated from Khartoum, was also hit. Thick black smoke blanketed the dawn skyline, with journalist Cristina Karrer describing the scene as “apocalyptic.” The Sudanese Electricity Company confirmed a “complete power outage” and is assessing damage to the city’s main substation.
The UN temporarily suspended humanitarian flights into Port Sudan but confirmed that no aid offices or warehouses were damaged, and regular operations would continue, according to deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq. Sudan’s government spokesman Khaled Al-Aiser stated that military forces were securing critical infrastructure, including fuel depots, and vowed that “the will of the Sudanese people will remain unbreakable.”
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) accused the RSF of orchestrating the drone strikes, but the RSF has yet to respond. The African Union condemned the assault, calling it a “dangerous escalation” and a “direct threat to civilian lives, humanitarian operations, and regional stability.”
The RSF, which has suffered territorial losses—including the key capital Khartoum in March—has increasingly deployed drones in combat as the conflict escalates. The two-year war between the SAF and RSF has killed tens of thousands, displaced over 10 million people, and led to what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
