Drone strikes by Sudan’s powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), struck critical infrastructure in and around Khartoum this week, triggering widespread blackouts across the capital and further straining a nation already battered by civil war.
Local media and witnesses said the attacks late Monday targeted both military and civilian sites, including the Wadi Seidna military zone, the Al-Markhiyat electricity substation in Omdurman, and areas surrounding the Al-Kalakla district, where a military factory is located. The town of Al-Jaili — home to Sudan’s largest oil refinery — was also hit.
Footage circulated on social media showed transformers at the Omdurman substation erupting in flames, followed by a series of loud explosions. By Tuesday morning, large swathes of Khartoum and its sister cities were without electricity. No casualties were immediately reported.
The strikes marked a rare but consequential assault on Sudan’s already fragile infrastructure. They came just days after the national army launched a new offensive in central Kordofan, seeking to break an RSF siege on El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and a crucial humanitarian hub for the wider Darfur region.
El Fasher has endured months of fierce clashes, with aid agencies warning that its collapse could cut off lifelines for millions. “The city is hanging by a thread,” one international aid worker said by phone, requesting anonymity for security reasons.
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The RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces have been locked in a bloody struggle for power since April 2023, when their uneasy alliance collapsed into open war. What began as a battle for control of the state has devolved into one of the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophes.
More than 20,000 people have been confirmed killed and at least 15 million displaced, according to the United Nations. Researchers at the U.S.-based Conflict Observatory believe the true death toll could be as high as 130,000, citing mass graves and uncounted victims in areas cut off from reporting.
For many Sudanese, Monday night’s attacks underscored how far the war has seeped into daily life. “We are living in darkness, literally and figuratively,” said one Omdurman resident, describing the sudden silence of the city’s markets after the blackout. “We don’t know when the next strike will come — or when the lights will return.”
