New details have come to light about the first-ever combat deployment of Sunflower 200, a Chinese copy of iranian Shahed-136, in early May 2025. For a brief reminder, the explosive suicide drones were reportedly used by the Rapid Support Forces, backed by russian Wagner Group and the United Arab Emirates, for a week-long attack on Port-Sudan. The opponents, Transitional Sovereignty Council (supported by the Sudanese Armed Forces), accused the UAE of directly helping the RSF to carry out the strike.
A recent article by the U.S.-based Jamestown Foundation reveals arguably the most important detail of this story. It turns out that one of the parties to the war in Sudan almost entirely destroyed the infrastructure of the future base for russian ships in this region — using Chinese copies of Shahed drones, no less.
Read more: Chinese Drones Used in Attack on Sudan Were Seen at a 2023 Military Expo in russia
Analyst Andrew McGregor notes that the drone attack jeopardized russian long-aspired plans for a naval base on the Red Sea coast, as satellite data revealed large-scale destructions at Flamingo Bay, an acting base of the Sudanese Navy which the government was hoping to trade for Su-30 and Su-35 fighter aircraft with the Kremlin.
The United Arab Emirates here are mentioned as potential mediators of acquisition of Sunflower 200 drones from China, although Sudanese Navy commander, Lieutenant General Mahjub Bushra, believes the Emirati military provided broader support. He claimed the drones were launched from UAE military facilities in Somalia.
On the other hand, SAF intelligence believes that the Sunflower 200 launches were carried out by RSF forces on their own, after receiving the delivery of UAVs via the Libyan desert or through the Amdjarass airstrip in Chad where UAE transport aircraft land regularly.
Furthermore, the RSF must have obtained or been given accurate coordinates "by means normally unavailable to the technologically weak paramilitary," reads the article, suggesting external aid in targeting the strikes.
Defense Express notes, regardless of who exactly pushed the launch button or aided in preparations, the main issue is that per China's international obligations, Sunflower drones should not have ended up in Sudan at all. This raises an important question of whether Beijing knew of the end user and sanctioned this operation nonetheless.
Jamestown Foundation says UAE and the PRC may be acting in unison to curb russia’s naval ambitions in the region by enabling the strike on the naval facility that the Sudanese government wanted to offer in a bargain.
On the flip side, the strike on Port Sudan’s infrastructure with Chinese drones led to significant humanitarian problems, hitting fuel tanks and other commodities kept in the port which are critical to the civilian population. The episode will surely need an explanation from PRC as to how its weapons found their way to the warzone in Africa.
Against this background, in a different light appears the attempt of TSC to secure S-400 air defense systems deal with russia in 2020. Moscow denied the purchase precisely not to soil relations with China and the West. This, in part, led to the Sudanese military currently having not enough means to shoot down incoming drones.
Read more: Multiple Explosions, Casualties, and Military Evacuations Follow a Suspected Ukrainian Special Operation in Vladivostok
