Salah Nugod remembers Port Sudan’s heyday, when nightclubs pumped out beats, alcohol was authorized and shipping tycoons from Greece and Turkey rubbed shoulders with traders from India, Yemen and Egypt.

Situated on the Red Sea coastline, the North African city boomed during the years following Sudan’s 1956 independence from the UK. The streets teemed with construction projects and merchants hauling oilseeds, bags of cotton, flour and car tires, recalls Nugod, a resident and former oil-refinery worker who is now in his late 60s. 

“In the sixties and seventies the city was a place for modern night clubs and bars,” Nugod said from his home in Port Sudan last month. “There was a middle class and people from Sudan and foreign countries.”

Today Port Sudan is quite different. It has become a site of refuge for thousands fleeing the war between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces, which grew out of a horseback-riding militia group from the western Darfur region.

At least 22,000 have arrived in the city since April 15, UN figures show, many of whom now sleep in makeshift shelters inside an amusement park, schools, mosques and on the side of the road. Even the well-known mosque of the Quran University has been transformed into a camp for the displaced. Among them are men, women and children from Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia and Nigeria, many fleeing a protracted conflict for the second time in their lives after upheaval in their native countries. Hundreds of thousands more have gone to Chad, South Sudan and Egypt.

Long queues have formed at gas stations, and prices have begun to escalate amid a run on staple food items. Flights and ships arrive at the city most days to bring in humanitarian aid and evacuate the lucky few who have the right papers and can afford to leave the country. Power cuts — once rare in Port Sudan — are commonplace. 

De-facto Capital

As the conflict continues, Port Sudan has become an operating base for government ministries, UN agencies, NGOs and much of the business community, turning it into a de-facto capital for a nation whose state has imploded.

For the locals — in particular the long-neglected eastern Beja tribe — the city’s newfound importance comes with a certain sense of irony considering its years of being marginalized by Arabs from central Sudan, who dominated national politics in the capital of Khartoum and fueled decades of conflict and strife.

Few, though, believe the city can offer a permanent solution to Sudan’s conflict.

“Port Sudan is very weak in terms of infrastructure and the situation is fragile, so the idea of changing it into the permanent administrative capital is very unrealistic,” said Hashim Tahir Sheikh Taha, who was Sudan’s minister of transportation and infrastructure until 2020, shortly before the two generals currently fighting each other purged a civilian government put in place following the ouster of dictator Omar al-Bashir. 

Rags to Riches

Built at the beginning of the 20th century, Port Sudan was initially conceived to take over from the ancient Red Sea town of Suakin, which lies 60 kilometers to the south and was once a major pilgrimage crossing point on the way to Mecca.

The location was deemed more convenient due to being on the mainland and having deeper waters and fewer coral reefs, allowing it to receive bigger ships. Through the 1970s and ’80s the city grew into a major trading hub as President Jaafar Nimeiri, who seized power in a coup in 1969, prioritized exports of raw materials and the construction of an oil pipeline from Khartoum.

Read more: A Red Sea City Becomes a Haven for Refugees From Sudan’s Civil War

Source: Bloomberg