Sudan accuses UAE of May 4 drone attacks on Port Sudan

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo via Reuters

CAIRO  -  Sudan said the United Arab Emirates was responsible for an attack on Port Sudan this month, accusing the Gulf state for the first time of direct military intervention in a war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Sudan cut diplomatic relations with the UAE this month, saying the Gulf power was aiding the RSF with supplies of advanced weaponry in the two-year-old conflict, a charge the UAE has denied. It did not immediately comment on Tuesday's statements. 

Speaking in New York on Monday, Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations al-Harith Idris alleged that the May 4 strike on Port Sudan, the army's wartime capital, was carried out by warplanes and drones launched from an Emirati base on the Red Sea with the aid of Emirati ships.

Beginning on May 4, Port Sudan has been hit with a volley of drone strikes largely against army facilities, the main airport, and fuel depots. 

Idris alleged that the strike on Port Sudan was revenge for an army attack a day earlier on an alleged Emirati warplane in the RSF-controlled city of Nyala, which he said had killed 13 foreigners including "Emirati elements."

While drones presumed to be launched by the RSF have repeatedly hit civilian and military infrastructure in the army-controlled eastern regions of the country, they had not previously reached Port Sudan, which has become a government and humanitarian hub since war broke out in the capital Khartoum in April 2023.

The army has been regaining territory at a faster pace since the start of the year, but the drone strikes have plunged much of its territory into blackouts and cut off water supplies and hobbled other essential functions.

On Monday the army said it was close to expelling the RSF from Khartoum state.

 (Reporting by Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Hugh Lawson, William Maclean)