Large plumes of black smoke billowed over Sudan’s de facto wartime capital on Tuesday, as attacks on a city that had become a haven for civilians fleeing civil war stretched into a third day.
The Sudanese paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces has launched a series of drone attacks on the military-controlled Red Sea city of Port Sudan, in recent days, targeting key civilian facilities, including the airport and a hospital.
On Tuesday, drones hit a fuel depot near the port and the airport, according to multiple eyewitnesses, rattling the city and leaving its streets nearly deserted. Khalid Ali Aleisir, Sudan’s minister of information and the official government spokesman, accused the group, known as the R.S.F., of carrying out a “criminal and terrorist attack” in a post on social media.
“ The will of the Sudanese people will remain unbreakable,” Mr. Aleisir said in another post that showed him standing in front of a giant plume of smoke.
Mr. Aleisir accused the United Arab Emirates of arming the R.S.F. with the drones used in the attacks. Hours later, the Sudanese military said it was severing the country’s diplomatic relations with the U.A.E. and would recall staff from its embassy in Abu Dhabi, Sudan’s news agency reported.
A day earlier, the International Court of Justice dismissed a case accusing the U.A.E. of fueling genocide in Sudan by supporting the R.S.F., an accusation the Emirates has denied. In March, Sudanese leaders linked to the military asked the court to investigate the claims.
“Sudan reserves the right to respond to aggression by all means,” the council said in a statement.
In Tuesday’s attacks, the drones also hit the upmarket Marina Hotel, where diplomats were believed to be staying, witnesses said. The hotel is close to government buildings.
No casualties were reported, and the R.S.F. has not taken responsibility for the attacks.
On Sunday, the paramilitary group attacked Port Sudan for the first time since the start of the war in 2023, ratcheting up tensions in a conflict that has already killed an estimated 150,000 people and displaced nearly 13 million.
Using drones capable of hitting targets hundreds of miles away, the group targeted an air base and an ammunition warehouse, a military spokesman said on Sunday. While the initial damage was limited, the attacks did not spare civilian facilities.
Mohamed Ahmed said that when he saw smoke over the depot, it was a sign that the violence was creeping ever closer. Mr. Ahmed, 40, had fled Khartoum, the capital, when the war started.
“I will not be displaced for another time,” he said, adding that he might send his family away if the fighting escalates.
“They are both destroying the country’s infrastructure, and eventually, only a destroyed and empty country will remain,” he said.
Thousands of civilians have fled to Port Sudan as fighting between the R.S.F. and the Sudanese military reduced Khartoum to rubble. As famine followed the fighting, aid groups with limited access to the conflict zones have used Port Sudan as a base to deliver humanitarian relief. The Sudanese military has used the city as its provisional capital during the war.
The drones struck in the early morning. Dozens of people began to line up for fuel, fearing shortages after the attack on the depot, said Abdallah Tag Elsir, a store owner. The 60-year-old kept his store shuttered, fearing more attacks.
“I didn’t open my shop today because I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Mr. Tag Elsir, 60, said. “The attacks on Port Sudan will not stop now, but I will not leave Port Sudan even if it’s not safe anymore.”
Othman Seddig, who lives in the neighborhood closest to the depots, kept his children out of school for the day.
“I knew it was an attack when I saw most of the people leaving their homes,” he said, adding that tension was thick in the city. “This war will not stop until foreign powers stop backing the warring parties.”
The war in Sudan began in April 2023, when the R.S.F. clashed with Sudan’s military. Both sides have been accused of war crimes and gross violations of human rights. The Sudanese army, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been accused of using chemical weapons and indiscriminately targeting civilians.
The paramilitary group, led by Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, has been accused of ethnic cleansing and acts of genocide against the non-Arab Masalit ethnic group.
In March, Sudan’s military pushed the paramilitary forces out of central Khartoum, retaking the shelled-out presidential palace and the central bank in what was a momentous shift after more than two years of conflict.
The African Union said in a statement this week that it was dismayed by the violence, which “represents a dangerous escalation in the ongoing conflict and a direct threat to the lives of civilians, humanitarian access, and regional stability.”
Abdi Latif Dahir contributed reporting.
