MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Sudan's wartime capital city, Port Sudan, is under attack. Drones bombed the city for the past four days. They were launched by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, which is at war with Sudan's army. NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu has this report.
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ABDEL FATTAH AL-BURHAN: (Speaking Arabic).
EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: A show of defiance by Sudan's leader. On Tuesday, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan stood on the roadside in Port Sudan, with plumes of smoke from a drone strike in the backdrop. In Arabic, he promised that the shocking attacks on the city would be avenged. For the last four days, including this morning, drone strikes have struck military and civilian targets, including the airport, hotels and an oil depot. Port Sudan became the temporary capital after fighting ignited in the capital, Khartoum. The city, and Sudan's Red Sea State, holds about a quarter of a million refugees. It's been one of the few places where some among the 15 million people displaced have been able to feel safe and rebuild something of a life. Now that has been upended.
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KHALID ALEISIR: (Speaking Arabic).
AKINWOTU: Sudan's information minister, Khalid Aleisir, went to the scene of one of the strikes at an oil depot. The country would fight the RSF, he said, and their backers, the United Arab Emirates. On Tuesday, Sudan cut diplomatic ties with the UAE, who it blames for arming the RSF, backed by mounting evidence from rights groups and U.N. experts. The UAE strongly denies this.
CAMERON HUDSON: These attacks on Port Sudan represent a clear scaling-up of the war.
AKINWOTU: Cameron Hudson is a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In March, the army recaptured Khartoum and much of central Sudan, welcomed by millions in the country desperate to return.
HUDSON: What we are seeing is the RSF really doubling down on its attack, trying to reclaim lost territory and sending a message that no place is safe.
AKINWOTU: And he said the UAE is a key actor in the war.
HUDSON: For months now, there have been reports that the UAE has been providing weapons to the RSF. There are even U.N. reports documenting these weapons transfers. But in the face of all of this evidence, the UAE continues to simply deny that it has any role in this conflict.
AKINWOTU: Port Sudan is the main entry point for aid in the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. Now that could worsen, and a dangerous shift in the war has ended any sense of sanctuary in Sudan.
Emmanuel Akinwotu, NPR News.
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