Drones hit five power stations in Sudan before dawn on Monday, and large parts of the army-held east and centre went dark.
By afternoon, nobody could say when the lights would return.
The state electricity company blamed the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for strikes in four states: Sennar, Gedaref, White Nile and Gezira. Reuters reported the operator’s account that stations at Sinja, El Hawata, Al Fao, Mashkour and Al-Junaid suffered severe damage. The company said the affected states cover about half the territory held by the army.
The operator said the attacks were “threatening the stability of the whole national grid”. The damage threatens more than household electricity. Power stations in Sudan supply essential services, including hospitals, water plants and irrigation pumps.
The accounts differ on the number and location of the strikes, but both describe extensive damage to power stations in Sudan and widespread outages. A government official told AFP that five stations were hit, two each in Al-Jazira and Gedaref and one in White Nile. Neither account has been independently verified, and the RSF had not responded to requests for comment when the reports were filed.
On the ground, the damage was personal. Babiker Youssef, a resident of Al-Fao in Gedaref, told AFP the power had been out since 2am. “My son is diabetic, his insulin has to be stored in the fridge,” he said. He had no idea when it would come back.
In the same state, grocer Ibrahim Mohammed faced a bleak choice. Either he would lose a fridge full of chicken or sell it off at a loss. His power had already been cutting out for hours before the strike.
In Al-Junaid, 54-year-old farmer Abdelhafez Daafallah had pinned his hopes on the station. He told AFP it had only been repaired about three months ago, after the RSF destroyed it. He had hoped his irrigation pumps would finally run again after nearly four years without farming.
Attacks on power stations in Sudan are not new. Strikes blamed on the RSF hit three stations in Omdurman in May 2025 and blacked out large parts of Khartoum. A transformer station in Damazin followed in December. El Obeid lost power after a drone strike in January. Last week, local reports said Tendelti, in White Nile state, caught fire and cut supply across North Kordofan.
In April 2025, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan vowed to halt drone attacks on the country’s power stations. Eighteen months later, power stations in Sudan are still being hit.
The United Nations had already warned of these consequences. In May 2025, the Secretary-General’s office said such attacks had “disrupted civilians’ access to electricity, healthcare, clean water and food”. In June, the UN relayed reports that strikes in El Obeid, including one on a power substation, closed a dialysis centre and shut water stations. Losing power stations in Sudan can mean losing clinics and access to clean water too.
The timing is brutal. Nearly 20 million people face extreme hunger, AFP reported, while the Sudanese pound has lost more than 25 per cent of its value in recent weeks. In the first three weeks of October alone, drone strikes killed more than 300 people, according to a UN tally.
Nor are power stations in Sudan the only targets of the drone war. Reuters noted this month’s attacks on Nyala, held by the RSF, and on Khartoum airport, held by the army. A medical source told AFP that 30 people died when a drone hit a cattle market in Nyala on 16 October. The army said it had destroyed RSF command centres in the city that day.
What matters is where Monday’s strikes landed. The army retook Al-Jazira last year, and its farmers have struggled to replant ever since. The government official’s account covered three army-held states, while the electricity company reported outages across four. Across these areas, attacks on power stations in Sudan threaten communities still struggling to recover.
Repairs in Sudan take months. The drones need only a night.
