Strikes on two more substations in northern Sudan have extended a week-long campaign against the electricity network in army-held areas, leaving the Merowe Dam as the country's last major source of power, according to AP.
Drone strikes knocked out the power substations in Al-Dabbah, Northern State, and Abu Hamad, River Nile state, early on Sunday 1 November, leaving both towns without electricity, the Associated Press reported. Sudan's army-aligned government and the rights group Emergency Lawyers blamed the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF did not respond to AP's request for comment.
In Al-Dabbah, residents told AP they heard a large explosion shortly after 4 a.m. and later found the substation burned out. AP reported that the station's guard, Mohammed al-Nour, was killed. In Abu Hamad, the local security committee said the substation was destroyed but there were no casualties. Sudan Tribune said drones also hit military headquarters and fuel stations in the Al-Multaqa area south-east of Al-Dabbah, where local sources said a woman was killed.
A grid running on one dam
Emergency Lawyers told AP that 15 substations had been targeted since early October; Sudan Tribune counts 14 power stations hit in two weeks across nine states. The wave began with a strike on the 500-megawatt Um Dabakir thermal plant in White Nile state, cutting White Nile and North Kordofan off the grid. An employee of the state electricity company told AP that the Merowe Dam, with 1,250 megawatts of capacity, now supplies more than 70% of Sudan's electricity, and that output had already fallen from 4,400 megawatts before the war to 1,100.
The Sudan Doctors Network warned that outages endanger hospitals, dialysis centres, blood banks and vaccine cold storage. A baker in Al-Dabbah told AP he had a generator but no diesel to run it.
Cabinet response
Port Sudan's cabinet on Sunday ordered a maximum state of alert, enhanced protection for power stations and their workers, and "maximum penalties" for anyone proven to have given the RSF coordinates for strikes, Sudan Tribune reported, quoting Information Ministry undersecretary Graham Abdelqadir. The cabinet said the drones were launched from inside Ethiopia, which Addis Ababa denies.
The Tasis-led Government of Peace and Unity has not publicly commented on the latest strikes. It accuses the army of its own drone campaign against markets and towns in areas it administers, including the 26 October strike on a market in Nyala, where Médecins Sans Frontières said one hospital received 36 bodies.
Photo: The Merowe Dam on the Nile in northern Sudan, 2009. Lubumbashi, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.