550 families displaced, shipping wanes as more drones target Port Sudan

Renewed drone attacks at dawn today targeted the city of Port Sudan, which has been under bombardment for 12 consecutive days. Listeners from the city told Radio Dabanga that ground-based anti-aircraft fire managed to shoot down a number of drones over Port Sudan, as well as over the airport.

The ongoing bombardment has resulted in 550 families being displaced from Port Sudan, that has previously been relatively few actual hostilities, despite being host to thousands of people displaced from elsewhere in Sudan. Following the RSF takeover of Khartoum early in the conflict, the city became the de facto seat of the Sudan government.

The International Organisation for Migration’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (IOM) notes that 550 families were displaced from May 5-12 due to drone attacks.

Families have been displaced from the neighbourhoods of aEl Tawraq, Salalab and Dar es Salaam to sites in Cannabis, Tucker, Halayeb, Jabet al-Ma’adan, Sinkat, Suakin and Aqiq in Red Sea state, the IOM confirms.

The matrix followed previous reports that nearly 120 families had been displaced between 5 and 6 May 5 and 6, 2025, highlighting that “more than 1,500 displaced families have moved from the Red Sea state to other states”.

Marine traffic

The bombardment has also impacted marine traffic and work in the harbour. Othman Taher, a union leader in the seaports, told Radio Dabanga that the movement continues in the ports despite the drone attacks, however the volume has decreased sharply since the attacks began.

“Traffic has declined significantly in Port Sudan since the war erupted two years ago,” he says. “It improved after the army took control of El Gezira state and large parts of Khartoum state, but drone bombardment has led to its faltering again,” he says.

He said that the bombing with drones will increase the cost of shipping and insurance for ships to Port Sudan, which will lead to a rise in the prices of imported goods.

Upgraded FY-70 ‘kamikaze’ drones

The Sudanese Military Capabilities platform, which is close to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), says that the materiel used in the recent attacks on Port Sudan are FY-70 drones, made in China by the Bieberg company. The platform asserts that the drones have been upgraded with a 550cc engine and increased fuel capacity for longer range attacks.

The standard FY-70 ‘kamikaze’ drone is a close clone of the electrically powered Russian-made KYB drone ‘loitering munition system’ developed by a subsidiary of the Kalashnikov Concern, except that the Chinese version has an internal combustion engine.

The RSF has yet to issue any statement regarding the attacks.