Meanwhile, explosions and fires rocked Sudan's main port city and wartime capital Port Sudan on Tuesday, a witness said, part of a days-long drone assault that has torched the country's biggest fuel depot, damaging the most important gateway for foreign aid.

A massive column of black smoke billowed from the area around the port, a Reuters video showed, and the witness said blasts had been heard from other areas though it was not clear exactly where else had been hit.

Sudan's electricity company said a substation in the city was also hit, causing a complete power outage, part of a systematic assault on infrastructure.

Port Sudan had enjoyed relative calm since the civil war suddenly erupted in April 2023, becoming the base for the army-aligned government after the Sudanese armed forces lost control of much of the capital Khartoum at the start of the conflict to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Hundreds of thousands of displaced people have also sought refuge in the city, where United Nations (UN) officials, diplomats and agencies have also set up headquarters, making it the main base for aid operations in what the UN has called the world's biggest humanitarian disaster.

Port Sudan's import and storage depots supply fuel across the country and the destruction of its facilities risks a major crisis, throttling aid deliveries by road and hitting electricity production and cooking gas supplies.

The attacks, which began on Sunday, open a new front in the conflict, targeting the army's main stronghold in eastern Sudan after it drove the RSF back westwards across much of central Sudan, including Khartoum, in March.

Military sources have blamed the paramilitary RSF for the attacks on Port Sudan since Sunday, though the group has not yet claimed any responsibility for the strikes.

--Reuters--