On Might 4, Sudan’s paramilitary Speedy Assist Forces (RSF) launched a barrage of suicide drones at Port Sudan, the military’s de facto wartime capital on the Crimson Sea.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) accused overseas actors of supporting the RSF’s assaults and even threatened to sever ties with considered one of its greatest buying and selling companions.
The RSF shocked many with the strikes. It had used drones earlier than, however by no means hit targets as distant as Port Sudan, which was a haven, till final week.
“The strikes … led to an enormous displacement from the town. Many individuals left Port Sudan,” Aza Aera, a neighborhood aid employee, informed Al Jazeera. “If the aggression continues … I believe I’ll go away like everybody else.”
A drone warfare
When a civil warfare erupted between the SAF and RSF in April 2023, the military had aerial supremacy as a consequence of its fleet of warplanes and drones.
But the RSF is closing the hole with an arsenal of suicide drones, which it used on Port Sudan for six consecutive days, hitting a military base, a civilian airport, a number of inns, and a gas depot, which triggered a large blast.
“Sudan had already entered the part of drone warfare during the last … few months at the least,” mentioned Suliman Baldo, the founding father of the Sudan Transparency and Coverage Tracker assume tank.
The military largely depends on the comparatively inexpensive Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones, reportedly receiving $120m price of them since late 2023.
Bayraktars can journey lengthy distances with a big payload, and the military says they helped it regain swaths of territory from the RSF in japanese and central Sudan between September 2024 and March 2025, together with the capital Khartoum.
Regardless of shedding important floor, the RSF then stepped up its aggression towards the SAF with Chinese language-made drones, in keeping with a latest report by Amnesty Worldwide.
The human rights group, Sudan’s de facto navy authorities and different screens all accuse the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of buying these drones – and different weapons – and supplying them to the RSF.
The UAE has denied the accusations as “baseless”.
“The UAE strongly rejects the suggestion that it’s supplying weapons to any get together concerned within the ongoing battle in Sudan,” mentioned Salem Aljaberi, a spokesperson for the UAE’s Ministry of International Affairs, in a press release on X.
Regardless, the growing use of drones by each side marks an escalation and dangers exacerbating an already catastrophic state of affairs for civilians, in keeping with specialists and human rights screens.
Daring announcement
On Might 6, the army-backed authorities in Port Sudan introduced the severing of all ties with the UAE after accusing it of being behind the assaults.
That announcement was not properly thought-out, in keeping with Baldo.
Sudan’s military might lose tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in gold income, in addition to entry to very important banking operations, he informed Al Jazeera.
A UAE-backed firm, Emiral Sources, owns a majority of shares in Sudan’s largest gold mine, the Kush mine.
Kush is run by Sudan’s military, which probably sells tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} price of gold to the UAE.
In keeping with the Central Financial institution of Sudan, about 97 p.c of gold exports from army-controlled areas went to the UAE in 2023.
Kush exported at the least one tonne of gold in 2024, though it’s unclear how a lot increased the quantity is for manufacturing.
Moreover, UAE banks personal a majority share within the Financial institution of Khartoum, whose digital platform, Bankak, facilitates cash transfers for thousands and thousands of displaced Sudanese and public establishments.
The UAE state additionally owns El Nilein Financial institution, which manages and approves worldwide transactions on behalf of Port Sudan, in keeping with a report that Baldo co-authored in March for the Chatham Home assume tank.
“This was a rushed resolution [to cut ties with the UAE] that can have severe penalties … as a result of UAE’s management over [Sudan’s] nationwide financial system,” Baldo informed Al Jazeera.
Main escalation?
Sudan’s military has not clarified how and when it would sever ties with the UAE.
On Might 6, SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan vowed in a video to “defeat the militia (RSF) and people who assist them”.
Al Jazeera despatched written inquiries to military spokesperson Nabil Abdullah, asking if Port Sudan will implement the introduced suspension.
No reply was obtained by time of publication.
For its half, the UAE’s International Ministry informed Al Jazeera in an e-mail that it’s going to not retaliate towards Port Sudan.
“The assertion issued by the so-called ‘Safety and Defence Council’ is not going to have an effect on the deep-rooted and enduring ties between the UAE and the Republic of the Sudan, and their peoples,” the emailed assertion mentioned.
In the meantime, specialists and observers imagine the warfare in Sudan is trending in the direction of a significant escalation.
The military’s regional backers might reply to the RSF’s elevated use of drones by doubling down on their assist for the military, warned Alan Boswell, a Sudan knowledgeable for the Worldwide Disaster Group.
“The apparent threat [from the attacks on Port Sudan] is that it brings different [regional powers] into deeper involvement on the military’s facet,” he informed Al Jazeera.
“We might see an escalating warfare with larger and larger firepower, and nothing can be left of Sudan’s infrastructure by the top of it.”
