Sudan paramilitaries launched a large-scale drone attack in the east on Thursday, a military source told AFP, with strikes hitting a key power station, causing major outages and killing three.
Since April 2023, Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions more and devastated infrastructure.
They are currently battling for the oil-rich southern region of Kordofan, where 16 civilians were killed in two days of drone strikes on the city of Dilling, a doctor at the city’s main hospital told AFP on Thursday.
In the north, entire cities were left in the dark into the evening.
“We’ve been without power since 2:00 am (0000 GMT),” Abdel Rahim al-Amin, an official in Port Sudan, told AFP. “We hope it will be restored soon.”
The attacks “led to power outages in several states”, the national electricity company said.
In recent months the RSF has been accused of launching drone attacks on vast areas controlled by the army, targeting civilian infrastructure and causing power cuts affecting millions.
“At dawn this morning, the militia launched 35 drones against the cities of Atbara, Al-Damer and Berber in River Nile State, targeting civilian infrastructure,” a military source told AFP on condition of anonymity, attributing the strikes to the RSF.
– Strategic hub –
Strikes in government-controlled Atbara in River Nile State targeted transformers at the Al-Muqrin power station, the national electricity company said, after witnesses reported flames and smoke was seen rising above the city.
An official at the power plant told AFP an initial strike targeted the plant overnight. A second strike hit rescue workers, killing two and injuring another person.
A River Nile State government statement confirmed two rescue workers’ deaths, saying they were killed “by militias who have no respect for human life”.
The damaged power station is a strategic hub in Sudan’s electricity grid, receiving power generated by the Merowe Dam — the country’s largest source of hydroelectric energy — before its redistribution to other areas.
According to witnesses, power outages have spread to several states, including those along the Nile and the Red Sea — where Port Sudan, the interim seat of the pro-military government, is located.
Emergency Lawyers, an NGO that documents atrocities in the conflict, reported strikes in Atbara that hit civilian homes, killing a young girl and injuring four.
The RSF has not commented on the incident, though it has been using long-range drones to attack army-held areas since it lost control of the capital.
Last month explosions were heard in Atbara, which is around 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of Khartoum.
– Mass atrocities –
The war in Sudan has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.
In October, reports of mass atrocities emerged after the RSF seized the city of El-Fasher — the army’s last stronghold in the western Darfur region — following a bitter 18-month siege.
Since then, the fighting has spread to the neighbouring region of Kordofan in the south, where more than 50,000 civilians have been displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The UN also said on Thursday that more than 1,000 civilians were killed during three days of attacks by the RSF on the Zamzam displacement camp in April, demanding a war crimes investigation.
Sudan’s army chief and de facto leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan visited Cairo on Thursday “to discuss ways to resolve the Sudanese crisis”, the spokesman for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said.
Hopes for a breakthrough in talks on ending the war were rekindled last month when US President Donald Trump said he would “start working on Sudan” after the conflict was brought to his attention by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, although little is known so far about any specific proposals.
Sisi’s office on Thursday voiced its “full support for” what it called Trump’s vision for “security, stability and peace in Sudan”.
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