An official blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for strikes on five power stations, while residents described risks to refrigerated medicine, food stocks and efforts to resume farming.
Coordinated drone strikes hit five power stations and cut electricity across large parts of three Sudanese states, an unnamed government official said in comments quoted by the Guardian in its 26 October report. The official blamed the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for the attacks.
All three states are controlled by the Sudanese army, which has been fighting the RSF, its former ally, since April 2023. Previous paramilitary drone strikes on power stations and hydroelectric dams have left electricity cut off for days at a time.
| State | Stations hit |
|---|---|
| Al-Jazira | 2 |
| Gedaref | 2 |
| White Nile | 1 |
Babiker Youssef, a resident of Al-Fao in Gedaref, said electricity had been out since early morning. His diabetic son’s insulin needed refrigeration, and he feared he would be unable to replace it if it spoiled. He did not know when power would return.
In Gedaref, grocer Ibrahim Mohammed said he had already faced hours-long power cuts before the strike. He feared losing his refrigerated chicken stock or having to sell it at a loss. Both residents described threatened losses, not medicine or food that had already spoiled.
The joint statement estimates that 41% of Sudan’s population faces acute food insecurity, including five million at emergency levels, and calls for safe, unrestricted aid access.
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Farmer Abdelhafez Daafallah, in Al-Junaid in Al-Jazira, said electricity supplies had begun improving three months earlier and a damaged power station had recently been repaired. The station had now been hit, threatening his hopes of restarting irrigation pumps and returning to farming after nearly four years unable to work his land. He described hopes of restarting the pumps, rather than pumps that were already running.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned that attacks on power stations threaten health and services for millions of people in Sudan, where hunger is already widespread. That warning concerns the broader pattern of attacks, not the number affected by these outages. The number of people affected and the timing of power restoration remain unknown.
The UK government has imposed travel bans and asset freezes on commanders from both sides of Sudan’s war whom it suspects of sexual violence during the siege of El Fasher.
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A young worker supporting his siblings was among the reported dead. Sudan’s military leader reportedly ordered an investigation into the attack near the Egyptian border.
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