Sudan’s power grid nears collapse as drone strikes blamed on RSF target electric stations

CAIRO (AP) — Drone strikes knocked out power substations in two northern Sudanese towns on Sunday, the latest in a week of attacks on electricity stations across army-held areas that Sudan’s government and a rights group blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The strikes on Al-Dabbah in Northern state and Abu Hamad in River Nile state left both towns without power.

The attacks have disrupted electricity and water supplies, halted business activity and forced residents to rely on costly alternatives, driving up prices. The Sudan Doctors Network warned the outages endanger hospitals, dialysis centers and blood banks, and threaten the cold storage needed for medicines and vaccines.

Fifteen substations have been targeted since early October, Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese rights group tracking the attacks, said, leaving the war-torn country’s grid dependent on a handful of plants.

In Al-Dabbah, residents woke to an explosion shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday. The town hosts thousands of people, many of whom fled after the RSF seized the city of Al Fasher last year.

“We heard a huge explosion that shook the houses, and then the power went out,” said Abbas Wadaa, a resident.

When residents went to the substation after sunrise, they said they found it completely burned. The station’s guard, Mohammed al-Nour, was killed, and a large crowd from the city attended his funeral, Wadaa said. The outage has shut down markets, hospitals and bakeries.

“We have a generator, but there’s no diesel in the city,” said Seif al-Rawasi, a baker in the city, who said he would eventually have to shut down his business without access to electricity.

“We don’t know why the RSF is targeting citizens by destroying power stations,” he added.

Farmers face an even bigger threat at the start of the winter growing season because irrigation depends on electricity and there is no diesel in the area to run pumps.

In Abu Hamad, a drone strike the same day destroyed the substation and knocked it out of service but caused no casualties, the local security committee said. Emergency Lawyers blamed the RSF for Sunday’s strikes on Al-Dabbah and Abu Hamad.

The wave of attacks began late Wednesday, when drones hit the Um Dabakir thermal power station in White Nile state, the country’s largest thermal plant with a capacity of 500 megawatts, according to an employee at the Sudan Electric Holding Company, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The attack destroyed four transformers and damaged three generating units, shutting down the station, its director said in a statement. White Nile and North Kordofan states have been cut off from the grid, and the damage will be felt for months, the regional network director said.

Early on Friday, a drone carrying four missiles destroyed the transformers at Shendi’s main substation, the local security committee said. The attack also hit a reserve depot and an army air defense hangar, wounding a soldier.

The Merowe Dam, with a capacity of 1,250 megawatts, is now the last major source of electricity in the country, providing more than 70% of Sudan’s electricity, according to the Electricity Holding Company employee. The country’s other hydroelectric dams produce no more than 100 megawatts combined, the employee said. Even before the latest attacks, production had fallen from 4,400 megawatts before the war to 1,100.

Many Sudanese who can afford it have turned to solar panels to cope with the blackout , but a typical household system costs nearly $5,000, far beyond the reach of most families, a solar business owner in Khartoum told The Associated Press earlier this year.

Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday the drones were supplied by the United Arab Emirates and launched from Ethiopia. The UAE has repeatedly denied arming the RSF.

The RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The war has killed at least 59,000 people , though aid groups warn that the number could be much higher. The war has also displaced some 13 million people and pushed parts of the country into famine . ___ Abdallah reported from Shendi, Sudan