"I saw a drone heading north towards the Flamingo military base, then I heard the sound of anti-aircraft defences," said one resident from the north of the city.
Port Sudan was long spared from the fighting between Sudan's regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has devastated the country since April 2023.
But it was targeted for the first time at the start of last month by drone strikes blamed on the RSF.
The daily attacks, which lasted nearly a week, damaged key infrastructure including the only still-operational civilian airport, electricity plants and fuel depots.
On Saturday, witnesses told AFP they also heard the sound of anti-aircraft missiles in the north and west of the city, as well as drones flying overhead.
The conflict in Sudan has pitted two former allies against each other -- army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
Tens of thousands of people have died and 13 million have been displaced, including four million abroad, triggering what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Since the authorities fled the capital Khartoum at the start of the conflict, Port Sudan has become a haven for government ministries, the UN and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Nearly all of the aid destined for Sudan, where almost 25 million are facing severe food insecurity, passes through the port, which is located on the Red Sea.
On Monday, five people were killed in an attack on a UN humanitarian convoy transporting food towards El-Fasher in the western Darfur region.
The convoy had left Port Sudan and travelled more than 1,800 kilometres (1,120 miles), and was awaiting authorisation to continue its route.
Its itinerary had been communicated in advance. Both sides in the conflict accused the other of being behind the attack.
Since the fall of Khartoum in March, the RSF has adopted a twin strategy of long-range drone strikes on army-held cities plus counter-attacks to recapture territory in the south.
Mali military withdraws from base after second deadly attack in days
Bamako (AFP) June 6, 2025 - The Malian military withdrew from a major base in the centre of the country Friday after it came under a second deadly attack in less than a week, according to multiple sources, as the country faces an uptick in jihadist assaults.
At least 30 soldiers were killed at the Boulkessi army base in central Mali on Sunday in an attack claimed by the Al-Qaeda affiliated Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).
On Friday, a religious holiday in Mali, soldiers left the post after a new deadly assault, locals and a military source said, affirming there had been multiple deaths in a Thursday attack.
"We are worried here in Boulkessi, very worried," a civil servant told AFP.
"The soldiers have abandoned the Boulkessi camp. They left with all their belongings. The camp was attacked again yesterday," the person said.
Mali marked the Muslim festival of Eid el-Adha, known locally as Tabaski, Friday.
"Today after the holiday prayer, we noticed that the last Malian soldiers who were in the Boulkessi camp had left, they had abandoned the camp," a local elected official told AFP.
Describing the departure as coming "at the request of the hierarchy", one security source told AFP the move was "strategic", contrary "to what Mali's enemies say".
Another miliary source called it "purely tactical".
While officials reported at least 30 dead in the first attack at Boulkessi Sunday, JNIM alleged it had killed more than 100 personnel and taken another 22 prisoner, on its Al-Zallaqa Foundation media platform.
That statement was verified Saturday by SITE, a US organisation that follows radicalised groups.
Attackers carried out an additional assault Monday on an army base and airport in the storied northern city of Timbuktu.
Then on Thursday, insurgents attacked an army post in the village of Mahou in the southeastern Sikasso region, killing five.
The army's general staff acknowledged the uptick in violence in a statement Thursday that said recent weeks had been marked by a "resurgence of cowardly and barbaric attacks against localities, peaceful populations, as well as military bases".
It added that "these acts are being committed by a coalition of armed terrorist groups of all persuasions with internal and external support".
Authorities have implemented or extended curfews in multiple locations across the country, notably the Timbuktu, Sikasso, Segou and Dioila regions.
Junta-ruled Mali has since 2012 faced attacks from groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group as well as separatist movements and criminal gangs.
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