Large columns of black smoke accumulate on the de facto war capital of Sudan on Tuesday, since attacks against a city that had become a refuge for civilians fleeing from the civil war extended to a third day.
The Sudanese paramilitary group known as the fast support forces has launched a series of drones attacks against the city of Red Sea Sudan controlled by the military army, in recent days, aimed at key civil facilities, including airport and a hospital.
On Tuesday, the drones arrived at a fuel tank near the port and the airport, according to multiple eyewitnesses, shaking the city and leaving its streets almost deserted. Khalid Ali Aleisir, Minister of Information of Sudan and the official government spokesman, accused the group, known as RSF, or carrying out a “criminal and terrorist attack” in a position on social networks.
“The will of the Sudanese people will remain unwavering,” said Aleisir in another since he showed him stop in front or a column of giant smoke.
Mr. Aleisir accused the United Arab Emirates of putting together the RSF with the drones used in the attacks. Hours later, the Sudanese army said he was cutting the country’s diplomatic relations with the EAU and would remind the staff of his embassy in Abu Dhabi, the Sudan news agency reported.
A day before, the International Court of Justice dismissed a case accusing the EAU of feeding the genocide in Sudan by supporting the RSF, an accusation that the Emirates have denied. In March, Sudanese leaders linked to the army asked the court to investigate the claims.
“Sudan reserves the right to respond to aggression by all means,” said the Council in a statement.
In Tuesday’s attacks, the drones also arrived at the Marina Luxury Hotel, where the diplomats were believed to be left, witnesses said. The hotel is close to government buildings.
No victims were reported, and the RSF does not have the responsibility of the tasks of the attacks.
On Sunday, the paramilitary group attacked Port Sudan for the first time since the beginning of the war in 2023, accumulating tensions in a conflict that has already killed approximately 150,000 people and displaced almost 13 million.
Using drones capable of hitting goals hundreds of miles away, the group pointed to an air base and a ammunition warehouse, a military spokesman said on Sunday. While the initial damage was limited, the attacks did not save civil facilities.
Mohamed Ahmed said that when he saw smoke on the deposit, it was a sign that the violence was dragging more and more. Mr. Ahmed, 40, had fled from Jardum, the capital, when the war began.
“I will not be displaced at another time,” he said he could send his family if the fight intensifies.
“Both are destroying the country’s infrastructure, and possible, only a destroyed and empty country will remain,” he said.
Thousands of civilians have fled to Port Sudan, since the struggles between the RSF and the Sudanese army reduced Jardoum to the rubble. While the famine followed the fighting, help groups with limited access to conflict zones have used Port Sudan as a basis for delivering humanitarian relief. The Sudanese army has used the city as its provisional capital capital of the war.
The drones hit early in the morning. The boxes of people asked that they be aligned by fuel, fearing shortage after the deposit attack, said Abdallah Tag Elsir, owner of a store. The 60 -year -old man kept his closed store, fearing more attacks.
“Today I opened my store, I don’t know what will happen,” said Tag Elsir, 60. “Attacks to Port Sudan will not stop now, but I will not leave Port Sudan, it is not even safe, it is no longer safe.”
Othman Seddig, who lives in the neighborhood closest to deposits, kept his children out of school during the day.
“I knew it was an attack when I saw most of the people who left their homes,” he said, that the tension was thick in the city. “This war will not stop until foreign powers stop supporting the parties at war.”
The war in Sudan begged in April 2023, when the RSF collided with the Sudan Army. Both parties have been accused of war crimes and gross violations of human rights. The Sudanese army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been accused of using chemical weapons and attacked indisriminatedly to civilians.
The paramilitary group, directed by the Lieutenant Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, has been accused of ethnic cleaning and acts of genocide against the non -Arab Masalit ethnic group.
In March, the Sudan Army expelled the paramilitary forces of the Jardum Center, taking up the Bombarded Presidential Palace and the Central Bank in what was a transcendental change after more than two years of conflict.
The African Union said in a statement this week that it was dismayed by violence, that “it represses a dangerous escalation in the wave conflict and a direct threat to the lives of civilians, humanitarian access and regional stability.”
Abdi Latif Dahir Contributed reports.
