A paramilitary drone strike on a power plant on Tuesday (March 3, 2026) caused a blackout in Sudan’s key Kordofan city of El-Obeid, a local official and an eyewitness told AFP.
“A drone belonging to the Rapid Support Forces bombed the city’s power station early this morning, causing a fire,” an official with the state electricity company said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.
El-Obeid is the largest city in Sudan’s Kordofan region, currently the fiercest battlefield in the war raging between the RSF and the regular army since April 2023.
“I heard an explosion at 2:00 a.m. (0000 GMT) then saw flames coming from the direction of the station,” city resident Awad Ali told AFP. “It’s now past 9:00 a.m. and power isn’t back,” he said.
North Kordofan state capital El-Obeid lies on a key crossroads that connects RSF-controlled Darfur in the west with the army-controlled east, including the capital Khartoum.
