Following drone strikes at a significant power plant in the east of Sudan, major cities like Khartoum and Port Sudan, including the capital and the coastal city, have been rendered gloomy.
In the ongoing civil war that has torn the country apart, a facility in Atbara, River Nile state, was attacked by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which are controlled by the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). On Thursday, flames and smoke erupted from the facility.
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Al Jazeera has verified the footage that is circulated on social media showing the power plant ablaze.
Power plant officials reported that two civil defense personnel were killed while attempting to extinguish the fire that broke out after the first strike. They also claimed that rescue workers were hurt when a second drone struck as they battled the flames.
Residents of Port Sudan, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamed Vall, discovered a routine power cut that had been caused by incidents in Atbara, which is located about 320 kilometers (roughly 230 miles) north of Khartoum.
He added that Sudan’s war has gotten worse of these strikes.
“This has been repeated throughout the entire year and the last year. Because they believe it is necessary to weaken the government and demonstrate to the population that they cannot be protected by this military government, Vall said, the RSF drones are flying thousands of kilometers across Sudan.
At least 104 civilians have been killed in Sudan’s Kordofan region since early December as a result of the latest escalation in a devastating drone campaign. In Kalogi, South Kordofan, the most deadly strike killed 89 people, including eight women and 43 children.
When drones struck their base in Kadugli on December 13 and sent shockwaves to six Bangladeshis, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that killing peacekeepers “could constitute war crimes under international law.”
At least six people were killed and 12 were hurt when the Dilling Military Hospital was attacked a day later, many of whom were medical staff members.
In recent months, the SAF and RSF have both used drones extensively.
In 2024, 484 drone strikes were carried out across 13 African nations, with Sudan accounting for 264, more than half of the total, according to the US-based think tank Africa Center for Strategic Studies. The SAF claimed to have shot down more than 100 drones in just ten days, adding to the intensity by March 2025.
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In April 2023, a power conflict between the SAF and RSF sprang into open combat. More than 100, 000 people have died in the war, according to some estimates, but the exact number is still undetermined.
More than 14 million people have been displaced and at least 30 million people need urgent assistance, according to the UN, making this the largest humanitarian crisis ever. More than 40, 000 people have fled North Kordofan alone, while unrest continues among the population in besieged cities.
Sudan topped the International Rescue Committee’s Emergency Watchlist for the third year in a row, thanks to a 50% drop in global humanitarian funding. Sudan was deemed the most neglected crisis in the world by a Thomson Reuters Foundation survey of 22 aid organizations in 2025.
More than 1, 600 people have died in 65 attacks on medical facilities in Sudan this year, according to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who made the revelations on Wednesday. He claimed that “each attack strips more people of their medicines and health services.”
Additionally, Seif Magango, a UN Human Rights office spokesperson, stated on Wednesday that women were the ones who were most affected by the conflict. He said women are “attempting to flee from killing and bombs” while also being “gang raped in El-Fasher, which he described as particularly horrifying.
Darfur’s central regions, where the country is sandwiched between the RSF and SAF, are now where the heaviest fighting is now occurring.
