Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) carried out a drone attack on a military air base and other facilities in the vicinity of Port Sudan Airport, a Sudanese army spokesperson said on Sunday, in the first RSF attack to reach the eastern port city.
No casualties were reported from the attacks, the spokesperson said. The RSF has not commented on the incident.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese army said that it had shot down drones targeting the Osman Digna air base and civilian infrastructure in the eastern city of Port Sudan.
"The enemy targeted the Osman Digna airbase, a goods warehouse and some civilian facilities in Port Sudan using drones," army spokesperson Nabil Abdullah said in a statement.
He added that air defences managed to shoot down several of them.
The spokesman noted that while some of the drones caused "limited" damage, there were no reported injuries.
The RSF has targeted power stations in army-controlled locations in central and northern Sudan for the past several months but the strikes had not inflicted heavy casualties.
The drone attack on Port Sudan indicates a major shift in the two-year conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF.
The RSF claimed earlier that it had taken full control of Al-Nahud and seized the Sudanese army’s 18th Infantry Division headquarters.
‘World’s worst humanitarian crisis’
The eastern regions, which shelter a large number of displaced people, had so far avoided bombardment.
The army has responded by beefing up its deployment around vital facilities in Port Sudan and has closed roads leading to the presidential palace and army command.
Port Sudan, home to the country's primary airport, army headquarters and seaport, has been perceived as the safest place in the war-stricken nation.
In March, the army ousted the RSF from its last footholds in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, but the paramilitary RSF holds some areas in Omdurman, directly across the Nile River, and has consolidated its position in west Sudan, splitting the nation into rival zones.
The conflict between the army and the RSF has unleashed waves of ethnic violence and created what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with several areas plunged into famine.
The war erupted in April 2023 amid a power struggle between the army and RSF ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule.
It ruined much of Khartoum, uprooted more than 12 million Sudanese from their homes and left about half of the 50 million population suffering from acute hunger.
Overall deaths are hard to estimate but a study published last year said the toll may have reached 61,000 in Khartoum state alone in the first 14 months of the conflict.
