Sudan's Power Grid Collapses as Drone Strikes Target Substations

Drone attacks destroyed power substations in Al-Dabbah and Abu Hamad on Sunday, cutting electricity to two northern towns and intensifying a crisis that has crippled Sudan's energy infrastructure. The strikes, attributed by the government and rights groups to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), are part of a wave of attacks that began late last week.

Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese rights group, confirmed that fifteen substations have been targeted since early October. The damage has left the national grid reliant on the Merowe Dam, which now supplies more than 70 percent of the country's electricity. Before the war, production stood at 4,400 megawatts; that figure dropped to 1,100 megawatts before the latest series of strikes.

In Al-Dabbah, residents reported a massive explosion shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday that shook houses before the lights went out. The substation was found completely burned, and its guard, Mohammed al-Nour, was killed. A local baker, Seif al-Rawasi, said he must eventually shut down his business because there is no diesel in the city to run his generator. Farmers also face disruption as the winter growing season begins, with irrigation systems dependent on electricity that no longer exists.

The Sudan Doctors Network warned that the outages endanger hospitals, dialysis centers, and blood banks. The group noted that the lack of power threatens cold storage for medicines and vaccines. In Abu Hamad, a drone strike the same day destroyed the local substation but caused no casualties, according to the local security committee.

The wave of attacks began late Wednesday when drones hit the Um Dabakir thermal power station in White Nile state. The station, Sudan's largest thermal plant with a capacity of 500 megawatts, lost four transformers and three generating units. White Nile and North Kordofan states have been cut off from the grid, and a regional network director said the damage will persist for months. On Friday, a drone carrying four missiles destroyed transformers at Shendi's main substation, also hitting a reserve depot and an air defense hangar.

Sudan's Foreign Ministry stated on Saturday that the drones were supplied by the United Arab Emirates and launched from Ethiopia. The UAE has repeatedly denied arming the RSF, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The conflict has killed at least 59,000 people and displaced 13 million, with parts of the country currently experiencing famine.