Drone strike in Sudan’s Nyala kills at least 21: RSF hits Khartoum power station
KHARTOUM — Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a drone attack on Tuesday on a power station in the capital Khartoum, a source in the national electricity company said, as at least were killed in an attack on a market in the Darfur region on Monday.
“RSF militia drones targeted the Al-Markhiyat transformer station, disrupting the power supply across large parts of Khartoum and Al-Jazira states,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The strike comes a day after a coordinated RSF drone attack on six power stations caused mass outages in four states in eastern Sudan.
Meanwhile, a drone strike in Nyala, in Darfur region, killed at least 21 people and injured 40 others on Monday, the AFP news agency reported, citing a medical source and witnesses.
A Nyala resident said the attack took place at about 8 pm (18:00 GMT) on Monday at a market in the north of the city, which serves as the de facto capital of the RSF.
“Twenty-one people were killed in last night’s bombing, and more than 40 others injured,” a medic at Nyala Hospital said on Tuesday.
Another Nyala resident told AFP that the market was frequented by armed men, particularly RSF fighters.
The Sudanese military regularly strikes Nyala, where the RSF has declared an administration rivalling the military-backed, internationally recognised government in Khartoum.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by war between the RSF and the regular army, which holds the country’s center, north and east.
The war has killed more than 200,000 people, aid workers estimate, and has triggered the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned that attacks on power stations threaten health and services for millions of people.
Close to three million people have returned to Khartoum state since it was recaptured by the army last year, but many have struggled to rebuild their lives in a scarred city.
The latest attack comes as the warring sides are increasingly turning to drone warfare.
Earlier this month, the RSF launched strikes targeting Khartoum’s airport, as well as dams and power stations in the government-controlled east.
A government drone attack in a disputed border region between Sudan and South Sudan earlier this month killed more than 150 people.
On Monday, the United States, the European Union and 30 other countries warned of an “alarming deterioration” in food access in Sudan and called for “urgent action” to prevent famine.
In a joint statement released by the US State Department on Monday, the signatories called on the groups fighting Sudan’s civil war “to lift all impediments on humanitarian assistance”.
