The director of the port of Suakin, located in eastern Sudan on the Red Sea coast, announced on Thursday that the Civil Defense had brought under control a huge fire that broke out in the port on Wednesday evening.
The fire continued for several hours at the cargo landing area on Wednesday evening, leaving the sky over the area covered in a cloud of smoke. The cause of the fire is not yet clear.
“The fire was brought under control following the intervention of civil defense and port workers,” Taha Port Director Ahmed Mukhtar told AFP by phone from Suakin. Mokhtar confirmed that an investigation had been opened into the accident and a commission had been formed to assess the damages. A port official who spoke to AFP on Wednesday evening called the situation “catastrophic.”
The accident occurred at a major trading port as the country is suffering from an economic crisis, exacerbated by the military coup led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on October 25, 2021. The army’s seizure of power has led Western countries to impose sanctions on Sudan, including cutting aid pledged to support the transition that began after the ouster of Omar al-Bashir’s regime in 2019. The historic port of Suakin is located 60 km from Port Sudan, the largest Sudanese port on the Red Sea. It is seen as an important commercial center, attracting the ambitions of regional powers. In 2017, al-Bashir signed an agreement with Turkey to rehabilitate the historic island of Suakin and build a civil and military ship service center, but the agreement was suspended after al-Bashir was overthrown.
