Witnesses have reported clashes between the Sudanese army and a tribal militia in Port Sudan (eastern Sudan) on Monday evening. Until now, the city had been spared from the five-month-long conflict raging in Sudan. Port Sudan is home to the country’s only operational airport, and the UN has established its logistics center there.
According to a resident of the coastal city on the Red Sea, there was “an exchange of gunfire between the army and a militia led by Sheba Darar,” a local Beja tribe leader, in the center of Port Sudan. Another resident, speaking anonymously, reported that calm had returned shortly after, with “army soldiers deployed in the area” following the removal of “checkpoints set up by the militias.”
Since April 15, the war between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, had been primarily focused in Khartoum, the capital, and the western Darfur region.
Port Sudan, which hosts Sudan’s only operational airport and serves as the UN’s logistics center, has thus far been spared from the fighting, which has resulted in thousands of deaths and millions of displaced people.
Since late August, this city has notably become the new base for the army’s chief after the army’s headquarters in Khartoum was besieged by the RSF. General Burhane has made six foreign trips from Port Sudan, seen by analysts as a diplomatic effort to improve his image in preparation for negotiations to end the conflict with Daglo.