Drone attack strikes Sudan capital: army source, eyewitnesses

A military official said the army had shot down “most of the drones.” (FILE/AFP)

• The war has killed tens of thousands of people and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: A series of drone attacks targeted the Sudanese capital Khartoum for multiple hours on Wednesday, eyewitnesses and an army source told AFP.
A military official said the army had shot down “most of the drones,” which targeted two army bases in the capital’s northwest.
Sudan’s army has been at war since April 2023 with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who have regularly attacked army positions using drones.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
The capital has been mostly calm since the army regained control earlier this year, with fighting for territory now concentrated in the country’s south and west.
But the RSF has been repeatedly accused of carrying out long-range drone attacks on military and civilian infrastructure.
Eyewitnesses in Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum, said they saw drones flying over the city and heard “loud explosions coming from the north” throughout the night on Wednesday.
It was the second day in a row drone strikes targeted the capital, according to the Sudan Shield Forces.
The armed group, an ally of the army, said two of its members were killed on Tuesday by a drone in the East Nile district of Khartoum.
The Sudan Shield Forces are commanded by Abu Aqla Kaykal, who last year defected from the RSF to the army, helping pave the way for the military’s gains. His forces have been accused of atrocities on both sides.
Following the army’s offensive and recapture of Khartoum, over 800,000 people have returned to their homes.
The army-backed government has launched a vast reconstruction program and is looking to move its officials back from the wartime capital of Port Sudan.
Vast swathes of Khartoum are still devastated and lack reliable access to services, with millions of people regularly experiencing blackouts as a result of the RSF’s long-range drone attacks.
The paramilitary’s fiercest attacks are in the western region of Darfur, where RSF fighters have surrounded and attempted to seize the city of El-Fasher for close to 18 months.
If it succeeds, the RSF will control all of Darfur and, with its allies, parts of Sudan’s south, while the army holds the center, east and north.
El-Fasher is Darfur’s last major city to elude the RSF’s grasp, and has become the war’s most important strategic front.
The UN says over 400,000 civilians are trapped in the city, where mass starvation has taken hold and daily attacks rip through mosques and hospitals.
The RSF has attacked multiple famine-hit displacement camps, and the UN has warned of mass ethnic killing.