PORT SUDAN: The power supply was cut on Sunday following drone strikes in the Sudanese city of El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, the national electricity company said, as fighting raged in the oil-rich southern region.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with Kordofan the latest battleground after the RSF launched an offensive to seize the strategic region.
“El-Obeid power station... was attacked by drones, leading to a fire in the machinery building, which led to a halt in the electricity supply,” the electricity company said.
Army-aligned forces had announced on Wednesday that they had retaken several cities south of El-Obeid from the RSF.
The Joint Forces — an umbrella organization of armed groups fighting alongside the army — said they had “achieved sweeping field victories in the North Kordofan axis.”
In a statement, the group affirmed “progress and control over several strategic areas, key among which are Kazqil, Hamadi, El-Rabash, Habila and El-Dubaibat.”
It said those areas had been “cleared of rebel militia (RSF) elements after inflicting many losses on them in lives and military equipment.”
A source in the Sudanese army told AFP that “this progress will open up the road between El-Obeid and Dilling” — a city in South Kordofan state controlled by the army and besieged by the RSF.
According to a UN-backed report, Dilling is in the throes of famine.
The army source added that government forces in Dalama to the south had cleared a path to Dilling and entered it.
Since mid-December, some 11,000 people have been displaced from North and South Kordofan states, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
Since the start of the war, more than 11 million people have been displaced internally and across Sudan’s borders, many of them seeking shelter in underdeveloped areas with a lack of nutrition, medicine and clean water.
Power outage after drone strikes in Sudan’s El-Obeid
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Power outage after drone strikes in Sudan’s El-Obeid
- Since the start of the war, more than 11 million people have been displaced internally and across Sudan’s borders
Yemen’s STC leader Al-Zubaidi has fled to unknown location, did not board plane to Riyadh: Coalition
Yemen’s STC leader Al-Zubaidi has fled to unknown location, did not board plane to Riyadh: Coalition
RIYADH: Aidarous Al-Zubaidi, the leader of Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council, has fled to an unknown location and did not board a plane to the Saudi capital Riyadh, where talks with other southern-based factions are set to take place, the coalition to support the legitimate government of Yemen said.
Saudi Arabia offered to mediate between the factions to resolve tensions in the south of the country and both Al-Zubaidi and Yemen’s presidential council leader Rashad Al-Alimi agreed to attend.
A large delegation of STC members did board the flight to Riyadh, the Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen said early on Wednesday.
Al-Zubaidi was due to arrive in the Kingdom on Tuesday but during a 3-hour flight delay, the coalition said that “unjustified field movements” were observed in Aden.
The coalition said it had been provided with information that Al-Zubaidi has moved a large number of forces toward Dhala.
Last week, the coalition carried a out a “limited” airstrike targeting two shipments of smuggled weapons and other military hardware into Mukalla in southern Yemen.
It said the two vessels entered the port without authorization from either the Yemeni government or the coalition, prompting the port’s closure.
The large quantity of “weapons and combat vehicles to support the Southern Transitional Council forces in the eastern governorates of Yemen” aimed to fuel the conflict, the coalition said.
More to follow...
