RSF Drone Strikes on Five Power Stations Cause Mass Outages in Eastern Sudan

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces launched a coordinated drone attack on Monday, October 26, 2026, against five power stations, causing mass power outages across the country's east, a government official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The drones hit two stations each in Al-Jazira and Gedaref states and one in White Nile state, causing outages across large parts of all three, the official said. All three states are controlled by the Sudanese army, which has been at war with the RSF, its former ally, since April 2023. An AFP correspondent in Al-Jazira reported that electricity had been out since 2 a.m. Babiker Youssef, a resident of Al-Fao in Gedaref, said power there had been out since the same hour and that he feared his diabetic son's refrigerated insulin would spoil and be impossible to replace. The United Nations has repeatedly warned that attacks on power stations threaten health and services for millions of people facing the world's largest hunger crisis. Earlier paramilitary strikes on power stations and hydroelectric dams cut electricity for days at a time. The war is now fought mainly with drones by both sides, killing dozens of civilians at a time.

The Guardian, on the left, leads with the RSF strikes and the resulting power cuts in army-held eastern states. It gives most weight to the human cost: Youssef's insulin quote, the UN warning, past multi-day blackouts and the toll of the drone war on civilians. The Hindu, in the alternative group, runs the same AFP account almost point for point, adding the correspondent's 2 a.m. timing and a Reuters photo of a separate drone strike on a market in Abyei. Right-leaning outlets had not reported this story at the time of writing, while left-leaning and alternative outlets had, so no right-side framing is available for comparison.