Sunday, May 4, paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, a group operating with assistance from russia's Wagner Group mercenaries, carried out a drone attack on Port-Sudan. Until the incident, the city was considered the most relatively safe place in the region despite the ongoing hostilities and had served as the de-facto capital of the legitimate government ever since RSF captured Khartoum.
The Sudanese military reports that the Osman Digna Air Base came under attack. While the official comments are yet to clarify the situation, a Turkish media outlet Clash Report states that the strike was carried out using Sunflower-200 aerial one-way attack (OWA) drones.
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Defense Express notes, the unmanned aerial vehicle is of Chinese origin, and despite no real-combat deployments recorded before, the weapon itself and its capabilities have been known for a while. Particularly, it first appeared in public at the Armiya-2023 military forum in russia, which turned out to be the last one open to general attendance.
The key specifications declared during the exhibition were:
- operational range: 1,500 to 2,000 km (varying in sources);
- speed: 160–220 km/h.
These put Sunflower-200 in one line with iranian Shahed-136 OWA drones and their slightly improved russian-iranian clones Geran-2. The launch weight of 175 kg, on the other hand, makes it more capable than the 240-kg Shahed and — notably — enables vertical take-off, making the system more flexible in deployment.
Other specs, according to the fact sheet presented at the event:
- dimensions: fuselage 3.2 meters in length, wingspan is 2.5 m;
- warhead weight: 40 kg;
- endurance: 12 hours, loitering capability not specified;
- fuel tank capacity: 160 L;
- flight controls weight: 1 kg;
- avionics weight: 10 kg.
These notably contradict with the data presented by Clash Report, indicating either modifications, multiple variants, or incorrect information about the new weapon only seen in display models before.
A different yet no less important matter is where the Rapid Support Forces militias could have acquired the Chinese unmanned systems. The outlet claims that the United Arab Emirates mediated the transfer from the People's Republic of China.
Sudan’s Foreign Ministry also accused the UAE of being the "regional sponsor" of the RSF, as quoted by Sudan Tribune. Local media go as far as to speculate that the attack might have been directly launched from a UAE-operated Bosaso Air Base in Somalia.
The UAE foreign ministry denied all allegations and condemned the RSF attack in a May 5 statement, calling for an immediate ceasefire and a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
For broader context, Defense Express reminds that the conflict over hierarchy and distribution of power between the RFS group and the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces in Sudan erupted in April 2023. Overall, Sudan has been repeatedly torn by civil wars, uprisings, and coups d'état almost regularly since gaining independence in 1956.
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