Sudan: Drone Attacks Target Port Sudan's Airport and Military Base.
Drone Strikes Rock Port Sudan for Third Day
In the war-torn eastern city of Sudan, Port-Sudan, drone attacks have been relentless for the past three days, starting from May 4, 2025. This ongoing aggression serves as a significant escalation in Sudan's raging conflict and has targeted vital military and infrastructure sites in the city, which functions as Sudan's chief Red Sea port and a strategic logistics hub for the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
An AFP correspondent, experiencing the tense atmosphere at dawn in Port-Sudan, a previously secure zone in the conflict, reported loud explosions and smoke arising from the direction of the port, where witnesses attested to an explosion within a warehouse.
A representative from the airport revealed that the drones targeted the civilian part of the airport. On the 4th, the military part of the airport sustained a drone attack, leading to flight suspension. The army pointed the finger at the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries as the culprits in these attacks. A military source revealed that another drone struck the city's main military base on the 6th. It's worth noting that a third drone hit a fuel depot near the port in the densely populated city center.
Hundreds of Thousands on the Run
Monday morning, a raging fire engulfed Sudan's primary petroleum depot in Port-Sudan, following an RSF drone strike, as declared by the Ministry of Energy. This conflict originated due to a power struggle between the army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and his former deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the head of the RSF paramilitaries.
Amid the conflict, Port-Sudan has emerged as a sanctuary for the SAF government, also hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. The RSF, seeking to regain lost ground in recent months, have increasingly employed drones to attack their adversary deep within enemy territory. With the SAF being driven out of Khartoum by the RSF at the war's outset, they retreated east to Port-Sudan and assumed temporary control of the city.
NOTE: The war over the past three days has shown a marked intensification in eastern Sudan, risking further regional instability and obstructing humanitarian aid, as evidenced by the United Nations' suspension of humanitarian flights to Port Sudan. The SAF manages to intercept some drones, but the attacks demonstrate the RSF's prowess for long-range strikes, posing a significant threat to the city and its inhabitants.
Reference(s):1. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sudan-reports-drone-attack-port-sudan-airport-2025-05-06/2. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/6/sudan-army-says-port-sudan-airport-hit-in-drone-attack-for-second-day3. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/06/sudan-port-sudan-hit-for-third-day-in-row-by-drone-strikes4. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/sudan-new-drone-attack-hits-port-sudan-area-officials-say-2025-05-06/ar-AA13bYk65. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250506-sudan-latest-updates-on-drone-attacks-on-port-sudan-airport6. https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2025/5/6/sudan-port-sudan-hit-in-third-day-of-drone-attacks7. https://www.america.gov/arabic/politics-democracy/2025/05/sudan-conflict-latest-updates/index.html8. https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/sudan-war-rapid-support-forces-rsf-vs-sudanese-armed-forces-sa9. https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/06/sudan-drone-attacks-port-sudan10. https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-situation-report-13-april-2025
- The ongoing drone attacks in Port Sudan, a significant escalation in Sudan's war-and-conflicts, have targeted not only military sites but also civilian infrastructure such as the airport and fuel depots, creating a general-news scenario of increased threat and danger.
- Crimes and justice concern the potential misuse of drone technology, as witness in Port Sudan, where drones have been employed in the ongoing attacks, adding complexity to the political tug-of-war between the SAF and the RSF paramilitaries.
- Incidents of accidents, including fires like the one that engulfed Sudan's primary petroleum depot, are a worrying consequence of the ongoing war-and-conflicts, causing major disruptions and posing a significant risk to the city's population and infrastructure.
