Major cities across Sudan, including the capital, Khartoum, and coastal city Port Sudan, have been plunged into darkness after drone strikes hit a key power plant in the country’s east.Flames and smoke rose from the facility in Atbara, River Nile state on Thursday, which is controlled by the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and under attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the ongoing civil war that has ripped the nation apart.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listFootage circulating on social media showing the power station ablaze has been verified by Al Jazeera.Two civil defence members were killed, power plant officials said, while trying to extinguish the fire that erupted after the first strike, adding that rescue workers were injured when a second drone hit as they battled the flames.Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamed Vall in Port Sudan reported that residents initially thought a routine power cut had occurred, only to learn it was linked to incidents in Atbara, roughly 320km (about 230 miles) north of Khartoum.He added that such strikes have become a frequent occurrence in Sudan’s war.“We have seen this many times during the during this current year and the last year. The RSF drones are going thousands of kilometres across Sudan because they think it is a way to weaken the government and to prove to the population they can’t be protected by this military government,” Vall said.The attack marks the latest escalation in a devastating drone campaign that has killed at least 104 civilians across Sudan’s Kordofan region since early December. The deadliest strike hit a kindergarten and hospital in Kalogi, South Kordofan, where 89 people died, including 43 …
