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Increasing drone attacks on electricity and fuel infrastructure in Sudan are disrupting essential hospital services and water supplies. According to AnewZ, the UN is concerned that deepening diplomatic disagreements between Sudan and Ethiopia could fuel wider instability in the region.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Wednesday that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had recorded at least 25 attacks on electricity and fuel infrastructure across 11 Sudanese states over the previous two weeks.
Denise Brown, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, told UN News on Tuesday that energy and fuel facilities appeared to be systematically targeted in the attacks.
Highlighting the impact on healthcare, Brown said a power outage at a hospital near Khartoum disrupted dialysis treatment for 25 patients. The hospital had neither a backup generator nor solar panels.
Brown said conditions for displaced people in Blue Nile state were worsening and that camp residents were waiting for food aid. “How can I tell people to be patient and wait for food? How is that possible? They have no money. They left everything behind,” she said.
The humanitarian crisis is also being compounded by a lack of funding. Only 47% of the funding required for the UN’s humanitarian appeal of about $2.9 billion has been secured, with fewer than two months left in the year.
Sudan and Ethiopia close diplomatic missions
The humanitarian crisis comes as relations between Sudan and neighbouring Ethiopia deteriorate. The two countries have closed each other’s consulates near their shared border.
The move followed mutual accusations that each side was supporting rival forces in the other’s conflict. Sudan has accused Ethiopia of backing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), while Addis Ababa has accused Khartoum of assisting rebel groups in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. Both countries have denied the allegations.
Mutual accusations fuel concern about wider conflict
The diplomatic standoff intensified after Sudan filed complaints against Ethiopia with the UN Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council.
Khartoum accused Ethiopia of allowing RSF fighters to launch drone attacks on Sudanese civilian infrastructure from Ethiopian territory. Ethiopia has denied supporting the paramilitary group. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
In a separate dispute, Ethiopia alleged that Sudan, Egypt and Eritrea had supported Tigrayan rebels who launched an attack against government forces in September. All three countries denied the allegations.
Rising tensions have heightened concerns that the war in Sudan and Ethiopia’s internal conflict could become increasingly intertwined, threatening stability in the Horn of Africa.
