UPDATE - Port Sudan hit by drone strikes for 5th day as fighting rages

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By Adel Abdel-Rahim and Ahmed Asmar

KHARTOUM, Sudan/ANKARA (AA) – Sudan’s eastern city of Port Sudan came under drone attacks Thursday for a fifth consecutive day as fighting raged on between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The drone barrage was confronted by the Sudanese army’s air defenses, with explosions heard across the city, according to eyewitnesses.

Sudanese authorities have not issued a statement on the incident.

According to eyewitnesses, explosions were heard earlier in the city and the army's air defenses engaged the attack, which lasted 45 minutes.

They also said that a drone attack targeted the Air Force College's headquarters in Port Sudan.

No information is available on casualties or damage.

There was also no immediate comment from the army or the RSF on the report.

-Causalities in Omdurman

On another front, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) announced that several civilians — mostly children — were killed and injured in a drone strike Thursday that targeted the Dar es Salaam neighborhood in Omdurman, the neighboring city of the capital, Khartoum.

The organization said that many of the injured were taken to AlNau Hospital, where two young girls were pronounced dead on arrival.

It said the site of the attack is believed to have been targeted by the RSF, although it could not confirm this.

The Sudan Doctors Network said in a separate release that a drone strike launched by the RSF targeted a home in Block 16, Western Omdurman, killing three children inside their home and injuring four others, who were rushed for medical treatment.

The network added that “over the past two weeks, the RSF has escalated its use of drones, leading to deliberate and blatant attacks on civilian facilities, directly affecting civilians and worsening their suffering.”

The Red Sea city of Port Sudan has become the temporary administrative capital and a de facto seat of the Sudanese government following the outbreak of clashes with the RSF in April 2023.

Sudanese officials have repeatedly accused the rebel group of launching drone attacks on civilian infrastructure, including power stations and other facilities, in northern cities such as Merowe, Dongola, Al-Dabba and Atbara.

Since April 2023, the RSF has been battling the army for control of Sudan, resulting in thousands of deaths and creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

More than 20,000 people have been killed and 15 million displaced, according to the UN and local authorities. Research from US scholars, however, puts the death toll at around 130,000.