Port Sudan

Port Sudan is a major Red Sea port city in eastern Sudan and capital of Red Sea State, with a metropolitan population of about 547,260 as of 2025, up from 394,561 at the 2008 census. Built between 1905 and 1909 by the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan administration to replace the older port of Suakin, which had become unusable as coral built up in its harbor, it now handles about ninety percent of Sudan's international trade as the country's primary seaport. From April 2023 to January 2026, fighting in Khartoum drove the Sudanese government to operate largely from Port Sudan, giving it a de facto role as capital and making it a refuge for people displaced by the civil war.