Port Sudan, in eastern Sudan, was hit by a new drone attack on Thursday-the second such strike of the day-following a similar attack on Omdurman, west of the Sudanese capital, which resulted in fatalities and injuries.
According to Anadolu Agency’s correspondent, citing eyewitnesses, a drone attacked Port Sudan, and Sudanese army anti-aircraft defenses responded, with explosions heard over the city.
As of 20:00 GMT, Sudanese authorities had not issued any statement regarding the incident.
Earlier on Thursday, the city had faced a similar drone attack, also repelled by ground defenses, with no reported casualties.
Since Sunday, Port Sudan-the temporary capital in the east-has been subjected to drone attacks targeting both military and civilian sites. These strikes have caused fires at oil depots and a power station in the city. The attacks have been attributed by the army to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and have disrupted the main entry point for humanitarian aid into Sudan.
Fatalities and Injuries in Omdurman
Meanwhile, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) announced that civilians, mostly children, were killed and wounded in a drone strike that targeted the Dar Al-Salam neighborhood in Omdurman, west of Khartoum, on Thursday morning.
In a statement, the organization said: “At 11:30 a.m. local time, reports indicated a drone strike in the Dar Al-Salam area resulted in tragic civilian casualties.”
It added: “Many of the wounded, most of them children, were taken to Al-Nau Government Hospital, including two young girls who were declared dead on arrival.”
The organization noted that “the site of the attack is believed to have been targeted by the Rapid Support Forces, but we cannot confirm this definitively.”
Similarly, the independent Sudan Doctors Network stated that “a drone belonging to the Rapid Support Forces targeted a house in western Omdurman, resulting in the death of three children and the injury of four others, who were taken for treatment.”
The network pointed out that “the Rapid Support Forces have intensified their use of drones over the past two weeks, leading to clear and deliberate targeting of civilian facilities and directly increasing the suffering of the local population.”
The RSF has not issued any comment on these incidents.
For some time, Sudanese authorities have accused the RSF of launching drone attacks on civilian infrastructure, including power stations and other facilities in northern cities such as Merowe, Dongola, Al-Dabbah, and Atbara, though the RSF has not responded to these accusations.
Since mid-April 2023, the Sudanese army and the RSF have been engaged in a war that, according to the United Nations and local authorities, has left more than 20,000 dead and around 15 million displaced or as refugees, while research by U.S. universities estimates the death toll at around 130,000
Source: Al-Yurae/Anadolu Agency
