Anti-aircraft missiles and drones over Port Sudan, according to witnesses

Anti-aircraft missiles were fired Saturday over Port Sudan, in northeastern war-torn Sudan, according to witnesses, as drones flew over the city. Since April 2023, war has raged between the Sudanese regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Port Sudan, the seat of the government backed by the army, was targeted by drone attacks attributed to the RSF for the first time in early May. The campaign affected infrastructure, including the country's last operational international civilian airport, power plants, and major fuel storage facilities. The almost daily strikes had ceased for more than a week until Saturday, when residents of the city heard "the sounds of anti-aircraft missiles north and west of the city and drones flying in the sky," a witness told AFP.

Since Sudanese authorities fled the capital Khartoum at the start of the war, Port Sudan has hosted ministries, the U.N., and hundreds of thousands of people. Almost all aid destined for the country, where nearly 25 million people live in severe food insecurity, passes through Port Sudan.

The war has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, 13 million displaced people, and what the U.N. describes as the world's largest food and displacement crisis. It has also split Sudan into two: the army holds the center, east, and north, while the paramilitaries and their allies control most of Darfur in the west and part of the south.

Since losing Khartoum in March, the RSF has adopted a two-pronged strategy: long-range drone strikes on army-held cities, along with counter-offensives to regain territory in the south. Drone strikes have affected infrastructure in the northeast of the country, and attacks on power plants have caused power outages for millions of people.

A power outage in Khartoum has also cut off access to drinking water, according to health authorities, triggering a cholera outbreak that killed nearly 300 people in May.