The fight for Sudan’s skies

For nearly two years Port Sudan on the Red Sea was a haven in Sudan’s civil war. The city became the country’s de facto capital after the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) fled to the coast. Thanks to its functioning international airport, it was the centre of relief operations for the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.

Now it is a military target. Starting with a drone attack on May 4th, civilian infrastructure (including the airport, a hotel and a power station) has come under fire from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the army’s main adversary. “No place is safe any more,” says Suliman Baldo of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker, a conflict-monitoring group. A war that has forced 12m of Sudan’s 50m people from their homes and caused one of the world’s worst famines has shifted to the skies.

The SAF was first to use armed drones on Sudan’s battlefields. After losing control of Khartoum, the capital, and much else to the RSF in 2023, it focused on acquiring advanced weapons. By 2024 it had bought drones made in Turkey, Iran and China. They may have been decisive in dislodging the RSF from Khartoum in March.

More recently, the RSF has also been acquiring drones with the help of the United Arab Emirates, its key foreign backer. As it abandoned its attempt to advance east by land, it has stepped up their use, targeting civilian infrastructure across SAF-controlled territory from the sky.

The new phase of the war is particularly bad news for humanitarian operations. All flights in and out of the country have been suspended, disrupting the supply of aid and medicine. In Port Sudan fuel is scarce. Electricity, already erratic, is down; a shortage of oxygen in hospitals is expected. Though aid agencies are staying put for now, the UN is preparing evacuation plans. One aid worker in the city warns of a “catastrophe” if the country’s telecoms infrastructure is hit next.

The attacks may signal a shift towards asymmetric warfare, in which the RSF focuses on inflicting maximum damage from afar. The SAF has frequently used air power to target villages and marketplaces inside RSF-held territory, killing probably hundreds of civilians. The two sides are now stuck in “tit-for-tat logic of disrupting civilian activities”, says Mr Baldo. As with all developments in the war so far, the latest twist spells more misery for Sudanese. ■

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