Eighteen drone strikes have hit Sudan's electricity network in the past seven days, with the latest three on Monday targeting substations in Kassala state (New Halfa and Aroma) and Northern State (al-Ghazali). The attacks caused widespread power outages and represent a concentrated, systematic campaign against civilian energy infrastructure — not collateral damage from battlefield operations. Sudan's military government has accused Ethiopia of enabling the Rapid Support Forces to carry out the strikes, filing formal complaints with both the UN Security Council and the African Union's Peace and Security Council on Sunday. The accusation — that a neighboring state is actively facilitating attacks on civilian power infrastructure — escalates the conflict from a civil war into a potential regional confrontation. Addis Ababa has not publicly responded. The infrastructure targeting follows a recognizable wartime logic: destroy the electrical grid to degrade civilian morale, cripple hospitals and water systems, and force population displacement. In a country already experiencing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises since the war began in April 2023, knocking out power to entire regions compounds famine, disease, and displacement. On the other side of the ledger, the Sudanese army reported fresh RSF defections in Blue Nile state. A group of RSF fighters surrendered in Damazin, the state capital, following the high-profile defection of senior RSF commander Siddiq Ander, whose departure was captured in video footage obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera. The army claims defections from the RSF in Blue Nile state are accelerating. The defecting RSF commander reportedly provided intelligence on military operations in Damazin, including details about Ethiopian support for the paramilitary group — a claim that, if corroborated, would substantiate Sudan's formal complaints to international bodies. The convergence of infrastructure attacks and defection intelligence around the Ethiopia angle suggests Khartoum is building a diplomatic case alongside its military campaign. The dual dynamics — grid destruction and internal RSF fracture — point in opposite directions. The drone campaign suggests the RSF (or its backers) retains significant operational capability and strategic intent. The defections suggest cracks in cohesion, particularly in peripheral theaters like Blue Nile. Both can be true simultaneously; wars of attrition often feature escalating violence alongside organizational decay. The core question is whether international institutions will treat the systematic targeting of civilian power infrastructure as a red line or as background noise in a conflict the world has largely ignored. Sudan's complaints to the UNSC and AU will test whether either body has any remaining capacity to intervene in African conflicts where major powers have no direct stake.
