Khartoum has largely been spared attacks by the RSF since it was recaptured by the Sudanese Armed Forces last year, but the capital has recently seen sporadic strikes. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Sudan paramilitaries launched a large-scale drone attack in the east on Thursday (December 18, 2025), a military source told AFP, with strikes hitting a key power station, causing major outages and killing three.

Since April 2023, Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions more and devastated infrastructure.

“We’ve been without power since 2:00 am (0000 GMT),” Abdel Rahim al-Amin, an official in Port Sudan, told AFP. “We hope it will be restored soon.”

Also Read | UN panel says Uganda has violated South Sudan arms embargo

The attacks “led to power outages in several states”, the national electricity company stated.

In recent months, the RSF has been accused of launching drone attacks on vast areas controlled by the army, targeting civilian infrastructure and causing power cuts affecting millions.

“At dawn this morning, the militia launched 35 drones against the cities of Atbara, Al-Damer and Berber in River Nile State, targeting civilian infrastructure,” a military source told AFP on condition of anonymity, attributing the strikes to the RSF.

Strikes on Thursday in government-controlled Atbara in River Nile State targeted transformers at the Al-Muqrin power station, the national electricity company said, after witnesses reported flames and smoke was seen rising above the city.

An official at the power plant told AFP an initial strike targeted the plant in Atbara overnight. A second strike hit rescue workers, killing two and injuring another person.

The River Nile State government in a statement confirmed two rescue workers were killed, saying that they were killed “by militias who have no respect for human life”.

The damaged power station is a strategic hub in the Sudanese electricity grid, receiving power generated by the Merowe Dam — the country’s largest source of hydroelectric energy — before its redistribution to other areas.

According to witnesses, power outages have spread to several states, including those along the Nile and the Red Sea — where Port Sudan, the interim seat of the pro-military government, is located.

Emergency Lawyers, an NGO which documents the atrocities of the conflict, reported airstrikes in Atbara that hit civilian homes, killing a young girl and injuring four.

Global outcry

The fire at the power station was still burning on Thursday morning, the Sudan Electricity Company said.

The RSF has not commented on the incident, though it has been using long-range drones to strike army-held areas since it lost control of the capital.

Last month explosions were heard in Atbara, which is around 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of Khartoum.

The war in Sudan has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.

It prompted global outcry in October, as reports of mass atrocities emerged after the RSF seized the city of El-Fasher — the army’s last stronghold in the western Darfur region — following a bitter 18-month siege.

Since then, the violence has spread to the neighbouring region of Kordofan in the south, where more than 50,000 civilians have been displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The UN also said on Thursday that more than 1,000 civilians were killed during three days of attacks by the RSF on the Zamzam displacement camp in April, demanding a war crimes investigation.

Sudan’s army chief and de facto leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan was expected in Cairo on Thursday “to discuss ways to resolve the Sudanese crisis”, the spokesman for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said.

Hopes for a breakthrough in talks on Sudan’s war were rekindled last month when US President Donald Trump said he would help end the conflict after Prince Mohammed urged him to intervene during a visit to Washington.

Before the power outages on Thursday, Khartoum had seen relative calm since the regular army regained control this year, even as the RSF continues to mount attacks in several regions.

Published – December 18, 2025 09:44 pm IST

Sudan’s General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

File picture of Sudanese soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) unit, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy head of the military council, secure the area where Dagalo attends a military-backed tribe’s rally, in the East Nile province, Sudan.
| Photo Credit: AP

This image grab taken from handout video footage released on Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Telegram account on October 26, 2025, shows RSF fighters holding weapons and celebrating in the streets of El-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur.
| Photo Credit: FP

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces shelled a hospital in North Darfur’s besieged city of El-Fasher. File
| Photo Credit: AP

READ MORE

Representational image only. File
| Photo Credit: AP

An attack on an open market in the Sudanese city of Omdurman by a paramilitary group killed 54 people and wounded at least 158, health authorities said on Saturday (February 1, 2025.) The attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the Sabrein Market was the latest in a series of deadly attacks in the escalated civil war that has wrecked the northeastern African country.

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has been battling the military since April 2023. Khalid al-Aleisir, Mof Culture and Government spokesperson, condemned the attack, saying that the casualties included many women and children. He said the attack caused widespread destruction.

The status of the civil war in Sudan | Explained

“This criminal act adds to the bloody record of this militia,” he said in a statement. “It constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.” Sudan’s Doctors Syndicate said one mortar shell hit metres (yards) away from Al-Naw Hospital, which received most of the market casualties. It said most of the bodies were of women and children, adding that the hospital has a significant shortage of medical teams, especially surgeons and nurses.

A video posted on social media by correspondent Nezar Bogdawi from Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV showed multiple body bags numbered and placed next to each other outside the hospital. The wounded being treated, some on the hospital floor, included a man with a chest wound, another with a leg injury, and a man with a head wound.

Last week, about 70 people were killed in a RSF attack on the only functional hospital in the besieged city of El Fasher in the western region of Darfur. The conflict has killed more than 28,000 people, has forced millions to flee their homes and has left some families eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive as famine sweeps parts of the country.

Why is Sudan still at war a year on? | Explained

It has been marked by gross atrocities including ethnically motivated killing and rape, according the United Nations and rights groups. The International Criminal Court said it was investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. The U.S. has accused the RSF and its proxies of committing genocide in the war.

In recent months, the RSF has suffered multiple battlefield blows, giving the military the upper hand in the war. It has lost control of many areas in Khartoum, the capital’s sister city of Omdurman, and the eastern and central provinces. The military also regained control of the city of Wad Medani, the capital of Gezira province, and the country’s largest oil refinery.

Sudanese refugees who fled the violence in Sudan’s Darfur region and newly arrived ride their donkeys looking for space to temporarily settle, near the border between Sudan and Chad in Goungour, Chad. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“A series of attacks by Sudanese paramilitary forces in the western region of Darfur raise the possibility of “genocide” against non-Arab ethnic communities,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on May 9.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), along with allied militias, have been widely accused of ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and war crimes in their war with the regular Army, which began in April 2023.

“The war has killed tens of thousands, including up to 15,000 in the West Darfur town of El-Geneina,” according to UN experts.

The area is the focus of the 186-page HRW report “‘The Massalit Will Not Come Home’: Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in El-Geneina, West Darfur, Sudan.” It describes “an ethnic cleansing campaign against the ethnic Massalit and other non-Arab populations”.

From late April until early November of last year, the RSF and allied militias “conducted a systematic campaign to remove, including by killing, ethnic Massalit residents”, according to HRW.

The violence, which included atrocities such as mass torture, rape and looting, peaked in mid-June — when thousands were killed within days — and surged again in November.

Local human rights lawyers said they had tracked a pattern where fighters targeted “prominent members of the Massalit community”, including doctors, human rights defenders, local leaders and government officials.

HRW added that the attackers “methodically destroyed critical civilian infrastructure”, primarily in communities consisting of displaced Massalit.

Satellite imagery showed that since June, predominantly Massalit neighbourhoods in El-Geneina have been “systematically dismantled, many with bulldozers, preventing civilians who fled from returning to their homes”, HRW reported.

HRW said the attacks constitute “ethnic cleansing” as they appeared to be aimed at “at least having them permanently leave the region”.

The context of the killings further “raises the possibility that the RSF and their allies have the intent to destroy in whole or in part the Massalit in at least West Darfur, which would indicate that genocide has been and/or is being committed there”, it added.

‘Large-scale atrocities’

HRW called for an investigation into genocidal intent, targeted sanctions on those responsible and urged the United Nations to “widen the existing arms embargo on Darfur to cover all of Sudan”.

The International Criminal Court, currently investigating ethnic-based killings in Darfur, says it has “grounds to believe” that both the Paramilitaries and the Army are committing “Rome Statute crimes”, which include war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

And in December, the United States said that Sudan’s rival forces have both committed war crimes in their brutal conflict, accusing the RSF of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

“More than half a million Sudanese have fled the violence from Darfur into Chad, according to the latest UN figures. By late October, 75% of those crossing the border were from El-Geneina,” HRW said.

Around 400 km (250 miles) east of El-Geneina, all eyes are currently on El-Fasher in North Darfur, the only state capital not under RSF control. The United States has warned of a disaster of “epic proportions” if the RSF proceeds with an expected attack, as residents fear the same fate of El-Geneina will befall them.

“As the UN Security Council and governments wake up to the looming disaster in El-Fasher, the large-scale atrocities committed in El-Geneina should be seen as a reminder of the atrocities that could come in the absence of concerted action,” said HRW executive director Tirana Hassan.

A file photo of Sudanese family who fled the conflict in Murnei in Sudan’s Darfur region. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Britain has circulated a draft United Nations (UN) resolution calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities in conflict-wracked Sudan ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins soon.

The draft, obtained on Wednesday (March 6) by The Associated Press, expresses “grave concern over the spreading violence and the catastrophic and deteriorating humanitarian situation, including crisis levels of acute food insecurity, particularly in Darfur.” With Ramadan expected to begin around Sunday, depending on the sighting of the new moon, the council is expected to vote quickly on the resolution, likely on Friday.

Sudan plunged into chaos last April, when long-simmering tensions between its military led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan and the Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum.

Fighting spread to other parts of the country, especially urban areas, but in Sudan’s western Darfur region it took on a different form, with brutal attacks by the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces on ethnic African civilians. Thousands of people have been killed.

Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias against populations that identify as Central or East African.

The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor Karim Khan said in late January there are grounds to believe both sides in the current conflict are committing possible war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Darfur.

Meanwhile, France’s UN Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said, “It would be a disgrace if we have a Ramadan truce in Sudan and no Ramadan truce in Gaza. We need both,” he said.

The United States vetoed a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza on February 20 that was supported by almost the entire 15-member Security Council.

The U.S. is negotiating on its own proposed Gaza resolution, with the latest draft calling for a cease-fire “of roughly six weeks in Gaza together with the release of all hostages” as soon as Israel and Hamas agree. The draft makes no mention of Ramadan.

The latest draft on a Sudan cease-fire was circulated on the same day the head of the UN food agency warned that the Sudan conflict “risks triggering the world’s largest hunger crisis” as global attention is focussed on the Israel-Hamas war.

Cindy McCain, head of the World Food Programme (WFP), said the conflict in Sudan has shattered the lives of millions and called for the warring parties to stop fighting and allow humanitarian agencies to provide life-saving assistance.

“According to that UN agency, 18 million people across Sudan are facing acute hunger, with the most desperate trapped behind the front lines. They include five million who face starvation,” it said.

The proposed UN resolution calls on all parties to remove obstructions and allow “full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access” including across Sudan’s borders and across conflict lines.

The draft also urges strengthened coordination of several regional and international efforts “to facilitate an end to the conflict and to restore a lasting inclusive civilian-led democratic transition.”

UN experts said in a report obtained by AP on March 1 that fighters for the Rapid Support Forces and their allied militias carried out widespread ethnic killings and rapes while taking control of much of Darfur that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The report to the Security Council painted a horrifying picture of the brutality of the Arab-dominated RSF against Africans in Darfur. It also detailed how the force succeeded in gaining control of four out of Darfur’s five states, including through complex financial networks that involve dozens of companies.