[4] Due to the civil war in the country that started in 2023, the military government has largely relocated to Port Sudan as a result of intense fighting in the capital city Khartoum, leading to it being described as a de facto capital of the country.

In 2009, Israel allegedly used naval commandos to attack Iranian arms ships at Port Sudan as part of Operation Birds of Prey.

[9] Following the October–November 2021 Sudanese coup d'état, the Beja tribal council initiated a weeklong blockade of the city's ports.

[4][11] Internally-displaced refugees in the city reportedly face extreme heat and shortages of food and water.

[12] By late October 2023, Reuters reported that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) controlled most of Khartoum, causing the government led by Abdul Fattah el-Burhan to have largely relocated to Port Sudan.

[13] General Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces, "has threatened to establish a cabinet at the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, with the intention of creating an alternative or second capital."

Hemedti, leader of the RSF, in turn, warned that this would lead to him declaring his own rival government based in Khartoum or another city he controlled.

[5] The port is part of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, there to the Upper Adriatic region of Trieste with its rail connections to Central and Eastern Europe.

The population consists mainly of Sudanese Arabs, including the native Beja people, with small Asian and European minorities.