Sudan Nashra: Weeklong RSF drone war devastates Port Sudan, reaches across Sudan Port Sudan severs ties with UAE

Mada

09-05-2025

In a major shift in Sudan's ongoing war, the conflict has now reached Port Sudan and Kassala — marking the first time fighting has extended to eastern Sudan.
Starting Sunday, waves of drone attacks hit key locations in Port Sudan, the de facto administrative capital where Transitional Sovereignty Council (TSC) Chair and Sudanese Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has been based since Khartoum fell to the Rapid Support Forces over two years ago. According to a senior military source at the General Staff, over 50 drones struck the city between Sunday and Thursday, engulfing the skies in smoke.
The strikes come after Burhan vowed to neutralize RSF drone capabilities just a week earlier, saying, 'Soon, you will not hear of these drones.'
Around 6,000 people fled Port Sudan, returning to their home states in the wake of the drone attacks, a source from the interstate bus terminal in the city told Mada Masr, noting that the number is expected to rise.
The drone strikes — which the European Union said were 'supported by international backers' — shattered the relative calm of one of Sudan's most vital logistical and administrative hubs. The city hosts United Nations humanitarian operations and foreign diplomatic missions and has served as the interim seat of government.
While the RSF has maintained official silence on the attacks, the military-led government held the United Arab Emirates responsible and announced it was severing diplomatic ties with Abu Dhabi.
A security source in the General Intelligence Service said their analysis suggested the drones entered the country from the northwest, smuggled through land supply routes to RSF bases in Nyala, South Darfur, and then on to strategic locations now under RSF control.
Egypt and several Gulf states — including Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia — along with the African Union, swiftly condemned the attacks on critical infrastructure in Port Sudan and Kassala, warning that such strikes pose a serious threat to both Arab and African regional stability.
Port Sudan descended into chaos in the early hours of Sunday. Fires lit up the sky near the Port Sudan International Airport and vital oil depots.
Later that day, military spokesperson Nabil Abdallah issued a statement confirming that the RSF had launched suicide drone attacks targeting the Osman Digna airbase and civilian infrastructure in Port Sudan.
***
Weeklong attacks on Port Sudan leave de facto administrative capital in chaos
The RSF operation began with drone strikes on the Port Sudan International Airport, partially destroying airport infrastructure and grounding air traffic. Civil aviation authorities suspended all incoming and outgoing flights until Sunday evening.
Five drones hit the airport's cargo depot, then another four struck the adjacent Osman Digna airbase, setting an ammunition warehouse on fire, a source at the Civil Aviation Authority told Mada Masr. Meanwhile, four more drones targeted the Flamingo military base, 15 km north of the city, causing partial damage, military sources at the base told Mada Masr. Though sources did not disclose the full extent of the damage, they described it as 'significant.'
The strategic fuel depot near the Bashayer petroleum terminal was also struck, setting off a fire that burned for three consecutive days, a source in the Civil Defense Forces told Mada Masr, adding that more than 45 personnel were involved in efforts to extinguish it.
A source at the Industry Ministry and another from the office of TSC member Ibrahim Gaber estimated the damage from the first day of attacks alone at around US$120 million.
On Monday morning, the strikes resumed, this time hitting the southern port in Port Sudan as well as oil depots, triggering massive fires.
In a statement on Monday, the Energy and Petroleum Ministry said the strikes were aimed at the complete destruction of the largest fuel depots in the Red Sea State. Energy and Petroleum Minister Mohie Eddin Naim, who visited the affected sites, condemned the attacks as acts of terrorism. According to the statement, he accused the perpetrators of intentionally targeting civilian and service infrastructure, with the clear goal of paralyzing the country's essential operations.
The ministry later assured citizens that fuel supplies remain stable despite the damage.
The drone attacks resumed for a third day on Tuesday. Targets included Burhan's residence, fuel depots in the Transit area, Port Sudan's southern port, and once again, the Flamingo base, a government official in the Red Sea State told Mada Masr. Civil aviation authorities were forced to suspend all flights to and from Port Sudan International Airport for the second time.
One of the drone strikes also hit the Marina Hotel, a luxury establishment believed to house diplomats located near several government buildings, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to Mada Masr. There were no reports of casualties.
The attacks on the Flamingo base — the military's most critical supply and operations hub on the Red Sea, second only to the Wadi Sidna base in Omdurman — destroyed several buildings, military vessels and an ammunition depot, and caused injuries among military personnel, a military source at the base told Mada Masr.
Ali Taleb, a public transportation driver working the southern route to Port Sudan's main market, told Mada Masr that he saw explosions around 4:30 am shortly before hearing anti-aircraft fire near the international airport. He also heard what he described as multiple drones approaching from the south and heading northwest, toward the Flamingo naval base. 'At first I thought they might be satellites, but the sounds were far too close,' he said.
Another drone strike targeted fuel depots at Port Sudan's electricity plant on the same day. The strike sparked massive fires and violent explosions, according to an engineer at the city's power conversion station. The attacks severely disrupted supply lines, effectively taking the city off the power grid, the engineer told Mada Masr.
Government spokesperson Khaled al-Eaisar visited the oil depots, which had been burning for the third consecutive day, directly holding the UAE responsible for the attacks.
All the while, the RSF and its allies maintained official silence.
At this point, the threat appeared to have reached a critical point for the military-led government. On Tuesday evening, in an emergency meeting chaired by Burhan, the Security and Defense Council issued a statement, read by Defense Minister Yassin Ibrahim Yassin, officially holding the UAE responsible for the drone attacks on Port Sudan and other civilian facilities across the country, including the Kassala Airport in the east. The government announced its decision to sever diplomatic ties with the UAE and designate it a hostile state, reserving the right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN charter and threatening retaliation.
While he chaired the meeting, Burhan also chose a different way to express his defiance to the threats that reached his residence.
Standing on a main street in Port Sudan as traffic moved normally around him and flames from burning oil depots and the port rose in the background, Burhan stated, 'Sudan will win.' He vowed that the Sudanese people would not be intimidated by such acts and asserted that the military and all allied forces stand united to repel the aggression.
'We are committed to defeating the RSF militia and its backers,' Burhan added. 'To everyone who assaulted the Sudanese people: your moment of reckoning will come.' He stopped short of naming Abu Dhabi directly.
Two years of escalating accusations between the UAE and Sudan have now culminated in a complete diplomatic rupture, and the RSF and its allies moved to respond on Abu Dhabi's behalf.
The RSF-led Tasees coalition — made up of armed and political groups who signed the RSF's political charter in Nairobi in February — preemptively issued a response on Tuesday night to Sudan's decision to sever diplomatic relations with the UAE. The statement called the move 'desperate' and rejected the Sudanese government's legitimacy — language that was later used by the UAE's official statement on Wednesday, which declared that it did not recognize the 'Port Sudan authority' as a legitimate government and dismissed the Sudanese decision.
In response to the Emirati Foreign Ministry's dismissal, Sudan's Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Thursday, describing the UAE's remarks as 'pathetic and ludicrous.'
'The statement shows a bizarre disregard for international laws and diplomatic norms,' the ministry said, accusing Abu Dhabi of displaying 'hollow impertinence toward the Sudanese people.'
The statement went on to condemn 'the frenzied depths to which Abu Dhabi's regime has sunk in its crude attempts to interfere in Sudanese affairs,' describing the Emirati statement as 'an act of entrenched duplicity from a government that calls for virtues it has never practiced.'
The Sudanese ministry stated that the world was now witnessing a sharp escalation in state terrorism by the Abu Dhabi regime against the Sudanese people, accusing the UAE of targeting civilians, infrastructure and vital facilities using various types of drones and lethal weaponry.
This escalation, the statement added, came after the failure of what it described as a 'proxy war waged through hired terrorist militias.' It criticized the UAE for boasting of its aid to Sudan while simultaneously inflicting far greater losses — not only through destruction and looting, but also through 'the loss of tens of thousands of innocent lives, acts of rape, displacement and the destruction of the means of survival.'
The ministry also reminded the UAE of Sudan's early support during the Emirates' founding days, referring to the country at the time as merely 'a project.'
Against the backdrop of this diplomatic crisis, the drone attacks continued.
On Wednesday and Thursday, drone strikes once again hit Port Sudan and Kassala, with the city of Kosti in the White Nile State also targeted — specifically its oil depots. However, these latest attacks appeared less damaging than the initial waves in Port Sudan, as the military's ability to intercept drones seemed to be improving.
On Thursday, a strategic drone strike targeted the Air Force College in Port Sudan's Matar neighborhood, near the international airport. The military intercepted and destroyed around seven drones that day, a senior military source told Mada Masr.
Abdel Rahman Hamad, a vegetable vendor in Port Sudan's central market, said he heard explosions around the Matar area, along with the sound of anti-aircraft fire from military defenses. According to him, the attack lasted around 45 minutes, with most of the drones falling near the Air Force College and along the coastal strip adjacent to the Red Sea.
The escalation in eastern Sudan has triggered a wave of regional and international condemnation, especially over the attacks on critical infrastructure in Port Sudan.
The European Union issued a pointed statement, attributing the drone strikes, which it said was 'reportedly carried out by the RSF,' to external supporters. It warned that the attacks not only endanger Sudanese civilians but also pose a broader threat to regional security.
The Netherlands Embassy in Sudan echoed the EU's stance, calling the targeting of civilian infrastructure a 'dangerous escalation that endangers displaced Sudanese civilians and international staff.' The embassy also said the attacks were 'backed by external supporters,' adding that the strikes violate international humanitarian law and undermine peace and stability efforts in Sudan.
'States supplying arms or funds to the conflict must cease support now and stand for peace,' the statement read.
The Intergovernmental Authority on Development likewise condemned the attacks on civilian infrastructure.
***
RSF sources claim responsibility for strikes in eastern Sudan, military official: We're prepared
Three field sources in the RSF told Mada Masr that the group was responsible for the drone attacks on the cities of Port Sudan, Kassala and Kosti.
A field logistics officer for the RSF in North Kordofan confirmed that the paramilitary's drones were behind the attacks on Port Sudan, describing the operation as the fulfillment of RSF Deputy Commander Abdel Rahim Dagalo's earlier pledge to bring the war to Port Sudan and northern Sudan.
Another RSF source, stationed in West Kordofan, said the strikes on Port Sudan gave the group a major commercial advantage. While the port is disrupted and government exports are halted, the RSF, the source said, has consolidated control over West Kordofan's Nuhud — the largest hub for exporting gum arabic and oilseeds from the Kordofan region. This control, the source argued, would significantly boost the group's economic capacity.
A third RSF military source framed the strikes on Port Sudan, Kosti and Obeid as a strategic move aimed at pressuring the government into acknowledging what they described as the 'reality of its weakness.' The source claimed the attacks would cripple any economic capacity the government might leverage to develop its military capabilities.
According to this source, the RSF plans to systematically paralyze the military's operations across eastern and northern Sudan as well as in the Blue Nile region. They further threatened that the group would soon move to storm Fasher and begin a campaign to take full control of Kordofan — a move the source described as the prelude to a renewed push to retake Khartoum.
However, a senior official in the General Staff told Mada Masr that the military is prepared for any further moves by the RSF, despite being so clearly caught off guard by the recent wave of attacks. The military's leadership, along with its command and control center and operations administration, convened on Thursday to assess the situation. According to the source, all relevant departments submitted reports and investigative findings to senior operations and military commanders during the meeting.
The military has also deployed specialized units equipped with counter-drone technology at different sites targeted in the recent attacks, according to the source.
The military's 19th Division shot down seven drones targeting Northern State's Merowe on Thursday — including two strategic drones that targeted Merowe Dam, the city's military airport and the division's camp in Ghazaly, a source in the division told Mada Masr.
While the military intercepted drones targeting Merowe, it failed to repel the attacks on Um Rawaba and Tandalti in the While Nile State, where drones struck fuel depots and Tanadalti's military command center, the source said.
Eyewitnesses in Merowe told Mada Masr that the weapons the military used to shoot down the drones were different compared to earlier operations. They could see the rounds being fired but said they were silent, unlike the anti-aircraft fire used before, which could be heard from kilometers away.
At Port Sudan's Flamingo naval base, which was struck twice during the attacks, the military's specialized units deployed there were able to down all drones launched on Thursday, eyewitnesses told Mada Masr. Military sources also confirmed that three drones targeting the key naval base on Friday in the sixth attack this week were intercepted. A military source stationed at the base told Mada Masr that the military has carefully repositioned its air defense systems to better respond to threats as the base's command and control room is anticipating further attacks, raising the alert level to its highest state.
Military and strategic expert Moatassem Abdel Qader told Mada Masr that repeated RSF drone attacks would not derail the military's plans to advance and secure territory in Kordofan and Darfur. The operation to lift the siege on Fasher and reclaim western Sudan is moving forward according to a detailed strategy, which includes mobilizing troops and ensuring logistical support at every stage, he said.
Abdel Qader stressed that just as the military managed to decisively resolve the battles in central Sudan and Khartoum State over the past two years — which involved more complex urban warfare — it is equally capable of winning the battles in western Sudan, which are less militarily challenging. He added that the military is now more prepared and experienced than before.
He also noted that the military has worked in recent weeks to cut off the RSF's supply routes by targeting the Nyala International Airport, as well as border areas with Libya and Chad and other key RSF logistics corridors.
This week's attacks came on the heels of a military strike on the Nyala airport in South Darfur — the RSF's largest operational and logistics hub in Sudan equipped with advanced military technologies — in a bid to disrupt the group's supply lines and coordination center with the UAE. According to the Sixth Infantry Division, the strike on May 3 targeted a Boeing aircraft loaded with military supplies, weapons, and both suicide and strategic drones. The operation resulted in the destruction of the plane and the killing and wounding of several foreign nationals, according to the statement. The division also said that it foiled plans to send an RSF unit to the UAE for training, killing 150 fighters.
Backed logistically by the UAE, the RSF has been developing a military airbase and strategic cargo facilities at the Nyala airport since early this year, a senior source from the military's General Staff told Mada Masr in February
Abdel Qader stressed the importance of Sudan designating the UAE as a hostile state and reserving the right to retaliate at any time, arguing that this kind of pressure could deter further aggression. While the UAE has denied involvement in the attacks, he said flight tracking data and intercepted materials strongly indicate Emirati involvement in arming and supporting the RSF.
On whether Sudan might seek emergency defense agreements with Russia or other allies to protect strategic sites from drone attacks, Abdel Qader said that Sudan already maintains both public and covert alliances. He noted that the military has recently acquired advanced weapons and ammunition, though some partnerships may require discretion and secrecy.
***
Drone strikes, civilian casualties persist across Sudan
While much of the attention this week centered on the assault on Port Sudan, drone strikes targeted other areas in Khartoum, White Nile and Kordofan, with limited attacks from both sides in Darfur and new military gains in Omdurman.
Eyewitnesses told Mada Masr that large explosions were heard and plumes of smoke were seen rising from the southern part of Kosti in the White Nile State on Thursday evening after drone strikes targeted fuel depots in the city. A field source said the attack was carried out by three suicide drones, adding that simultaneous strikes hit military positions in Tandalti, west of Kosti, killing and injuring several soldiers.
In North Kordofan's Um Rawaba, RSF drones struck a military checkpoint at the city's entrance and attempted to hit power transformers and other military sites but ground defenses managed to repel the attack, a local source told Mada Masr.
Drone strikes also reached Omdurman in western Khartoum. According to the Sudanese Doctors Network, three children were killed and four others injured when a drone hit a residential home in Hara 16 west of the city. In a statement issued Thursday, the network blamed the RSF for the attack and called on the international community to pressure the paramilitary group to halt violations against civilians, allow safe humanitarian corridors into besieged areas in Kordofan and Darfur and stop targeting civilian infrastructure.
In its operation to eliminate the remaining RSF pockets in Omdurman and the capital, the military advanced on Thursday to the outskirts of the Kassarat area in Salha, and cleared several blocks of the Real Estate Bank neighborhood in southern Omdurman the previous day, a field source told Mada Masr.
Meanwhile, in Fasher, North Darfur, the city witnessed a relative calm this week. A field source told Mada Masr that direct clashes between the military and allied forces on one side, and the RSF and its allied tribal militias on the other, had decreased. Fighting was largely limited to artillery exchanges and drone strikes.
A military drone targeted RSF-held sites in Gaggo Gaggo, east of Fasher, on Wednesday evening, aiming at jamming stations and drone launch platforms, according to the source.
The RSF, on the other hand, resumed its artillery shelling, targeting several areas in the city's north on Wednesday. According to the military's