Drone Strike Kills 21 in Sudan’s Darfur Region

Aerial bombardments in Sudan have resulted in at least 21 fatalities in the western Darfur region and caused extensive power outages across the eastern part of the country, according to medical personnel and local witnesses on Tuesday.

In Nyala, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stronghold in Darfur, a drone struck a crowded market on Monday evening, leaving 21 dead and over 40 wounded, a hospital medic told AFP.

Witnesses noted the market was a common gathering spot for young men, including RSF combatants, though the medic could not confirm the exact number of fighters among the casualties.

The Sudanese military, which has been engaged in a civil war with the RSF since April 2023, frequently targets Nyala.

In response, the RSF has conducted retaliatory strikes on Khartoum’s airport and critical infrastructure in the east.

On Tuesday, an anonymous source within the national electricity company reported that RSF drones hit the Al-Markhiyat transformer station.

This attack disrupted power for large sections of Khartoum and Al-Jazira states, following a coordinated strike on six power facilities a day earlier that plunged millions into darkness across Al-Jazira, White Nile, Sennar, and Gedaref.

The war is currently being fought primarily via drones, with both sides launching sophisticated attacks from across the country, killing dozens of civilians at a time.

In the first three weeks of October alone, drone strikes killed over 300 people and injured hundreds more, according to a UN tally.

Since it began, 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.

Power and water supplies remain unreliable, much of the capital remains unsafe from unexploded bombs and many struggle to put food on the table in a collapsed economy.

On Monday, 30 countries, including the United States, France and the United Kingdom warned that urgent action was needed to prevent famine expanding across the country.

Sudan is facing “an alarming deterioration” of food security, they said, citing the war, a currency in freefall, higher fuel prices due to the Middle East war and a drought induced by the El Nino climate phenomenon.

Sudan’s foreign ministry on Monday insisted the country’s food security was “reassuring”, in an attempt to “refute claims of famine”.

It accused “some countries and organisations” of “politically exploiting the humanitarian situation”.

The army has for years denied claims of documented famine and has been accused of blocking access to humanitarian aid.