Drone Strikes Are Destroying the Infrastructure of Survival in the Heart of SudanIn El-Obeid, RSF drone strikes are destroying fuel, electricity, and water that keeps the most fragile patients alive.
Story by Mohamed Wad Al-Sak Ahmed Mahmoud’s sister, Nafisah, died last month in the city of El-Obeid, another victim of a more than three-year long war raging across Sudan already considered one of the deadliest conflicts for civilians this century. But like a growing number of Sudanese victims of the war, Mahmoud’s sister’s death was not the direct result of an airstrike, or gunfire. Instead, she fell victim to the near-total collapse of basic infrastructure in the country as a result of calculated attacks aimed at depriving Sudanese civilians the necessities of life. The war in Sudan has now killed somewhere between 150,000 to 400,000 people according to outside analysts, with people dying from a combination of direct violence, hunger, and lack of access to healthcare. In June, the 21-year-old Nafisah suddenly fell faint and needed urgent hospital care; she had been managing the impact of an under-treated blood clot in her left leg since 2024. With El-Obeid under constant drone attack and bombardment conducted by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), receiving prompt medical care for basic conditions was nearly impossible. “We called the ambulance and waited a long time for any tuk-tuk or private car. Then we were told that movement was difficult because of the conditions and the fuel shortage,” Mahmoud said. Blood clots can be life-threatening without immediate medical treatment. “After that we started looking for any car or way to move her. But time kept passing, and her condition kept getting worse.” When they finally did reach the hospital, the facility was facing resource and personnel strains due to the war and overwhelmed with patients. “When we arrived we found the doctors trying to help everyone, but the pressure was immense and resources were limited. It was clear they were working under extremely difficult conditions,” he said. His sister died several hours after arriving at the hospital. Her death still haunts her family members, who believe that the delay in arriving at the facility and receiving treatment contributed to her death. “After she died, I kept thinking: if the ambulance had arrived faster, or if the services hadn’t broken down, maybe my sister would still be with us,” Mahmoud said. “People think war only kills those struck by shells. But the truth is it also kills when it prevents a patient from reaching treatment. My sister was one of them.” War on InfrastructureThe crisis that has overtaken hospitals and other infrastructure in El-Obeid is the product of a calculated military campaign waged by the RSF that has directly targeted civilian infrastructure and imposed a de facto siege. In recent months, the RSF, which receives arms and other support from the United Arab Emirates, has begun using bombardment by foreign-supplied drones to destroy critical infrastructure, attack supply lines, and force the capitulation of the city’s population. El-Obeid itself remains under the control of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Its 5th Infantry Division is headquartered in the city, which serves as the army’s main operational base in North Kordofan, after being pushed out of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, and falling back toward its western strongholds in Darfur last year, the group no longer has the manpower or heavy equipment to mount a direct ground assault and seize the city outright. Lacking the ability to launch a direct assault, the RSF has reverted to besieging the entire city—cutting supply lines into El-Obeid and striking infrastructure with drones on a regular basis. El-Obeid has experienced a spike in aerial attacks since mid-June, according to the global monitor group Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED). Those findings are echoed by local residents who say that drone attacks by the RSF have intensified against the city, targeting fuel and water infrastructure while making many roadways too dangerous to cross. For five consecutive days in the middle of this month, strikes hit fuel stations in El-Obeid. On June 19, a strike on the main power transformer cut off electricity entirely. The price of food and fuel is skyrocketing as supplies disappear, while families have resorted to digging wells in a desperate attempt to access water of dubious safety. Nour al-Din Hajj al-Lain, 37, a transport worker in El-Obeid, said that in the wake of the fuel station attacks, fuel prices have reached approximately $30 per gallon with passenger fares rising by up to 2,000 pounds. “Many people are now walking to work,” he said. “El-Obeid is a principal transit point—when transport here is disrupted, the impact extends across a wide area well beyond the city itself.” Adam Hamid, who has been working in El-Obeid’s main market for about 15 years, said most residents continue their daily lives despite mounting anxiety, but that uncertainty and insecurity has already altered economic behavior. Before the drone attacks made daily life in the city unsafe, the market was much busier, Hamid said. His small shop, which sells household basics, used to receive around 50-70 customers a day. That average has dropped to less than half—dipping further on days following attacks, or when there are reports of possible new strikes. “Most customers now focus only on essential goods such as food and basic necessities, while postponing non-essential purchases or larger expenses,” he explained. Traders are similarly cautious and have stopped buying large quantities of goods or are reducing their operations. On June 24 members of Congress urged the State Department to secure an agreement to lift the siege, which it said the RSF and its allies have used to “collectively punish civilians and maximize death and destruction.”
Healthcare DisruptionsEmergency first responders in El-Obeid today describe a nightmarish situation in which shortages of fuel have left them unable to reach civilians in distress, while drone attacks on major roads make it treacherous for ambulances to travel even when fuel is available. “Before, we used to move the moment we got a call. Now the first question we ask is: is the road safe?” said an ambulance driver at a health facility in the city, who asked not to be named for security reasons. “Often we delay or take longer routes to avoid areas that might be targeted [by airstrikes], which means the patient waits longer before help arrives.” For patients with hemorrhaging or blood clots—like the sister of Ahmed Mahmoud—that delay can mean the difference between life and death. Abdelmajeed Mohammed, a neurosurgeon in El-Obeid, said that the escalation of attacks has transformed how the city’s referral hospitals operate. “In a single minute, 50 patients can come in, and life practically stops with the shelling,” said Mohammed. Drone strikes, he added, have paralyzed every step of the medical system. “Ambulances struggle to move because of fuel shortages and security risks, medical staff are delayed getting to the hospital, and medical supplies are disrupted,” he said. “And if the power goes out or the generator fuel runs dry, vital equipment—monitors, oxygen, operating rooms, dialysis machines—all stop. That’s why we say life inside the hospital nearly comes to a halt.” The strikes on fuel stations have also further crippled hospitals, which rely on them to operate generators amid nationwide blackouts and strikes on electrical power stations. “Two days ago we were forced to suspend some emergency admissions because of a power outage, and before that, surgeries were postponed because generator fuel wasn’t available,” he said. “Fuel is the lifeline of the hospital for us. Patients who need oxygen depend on machines that don’t work without electricity, and even the machines that read vital signs don’t work without electricity and fuel. And if you can’t see the vital signs, you can’t treat the patient.” El-Obeid’s Al-Jameeh Dialysis Center is one of the last medical centers offering kidney dialysis in western Sudan after war shut down services across the area. But now, it too is teetering. Ayman Abdulrahman, one of the center’s medical staff, said machines are breaking down at a rapid clip because of the relentless flow of patients. At the moment, all they can do is scale back services. “In the past we used to give the patient two full sessions, but with the pressure and the machine shortage we were forced to cut the session length so we could give other patients a chance too.” A similar wave of strikes in June 2023 wreaked havoc on the dialysis unit, with at least 12 patients dying as a result. So far there are no officially documented figures on how many deaths have resulted at the center from the latest strikes. “The work day now starts with the question: do we have electricity? Is there enough fuel to run the generator?” said Esraa Awad, a doctor at the dialysis center and its former director. “A patient hooked up to a dialysis machine can’t simply have their session stopped because of shelling or a power cut. Any sudden interruption puts us in front of real medical risks.” Awad explained the fuel crisis extends beyond generators to patient transport and the arrival of staff and supplies: “Dialysis isn’t just a machine, it’s an interconnected chain. If the fuel or electricity is cut, or a patient or supplies can’t get through, the whole link collapses—and the patient is the first to pay the price.” After the RSF stepped up its strikes on fuel-stations in June, it cut even deeper into critical energy supplies for the city’s hospitals, said an emergency room nurse at Al-Daman Hospital, who asked not to be named for her personal safety. “We now start every shift not knowing whether the power will hold, or whether there’s enough fuel to run the generator until the end of the day,” she said. “These are questions that weren’t part of our job before the war.” Drone WarfareIn addition to the impact on civilians, the RSF strikes on infrastructure are also changing the balance of the war around El-Obeid. A member of the Joint Forces, an armed group aligned with the SAF, told Drop Site on condition of anonymity that the military was having difficulties moving troops and supplies as a result of RSF attacks on fuel stations and roads in the area. The region now being contested by the two sides has become vital to the larger war. The area under siege separates the army-controlled east of Sudan from the RSF-controlled west. That makes it the main corridor through which the warring parties move troops, weapons, fuel, and supplies. For both sides, drones have become an important tool for combat, as well as a means to punish and pressure the civilian population. In the first four months of 2026, armed drones caused more than 80% of civilian deaths, killing at least 880 people nationwide, with the Kordofan and Darfur regions hardest hit, the UN said in May. The drones themselves come from outside Sudan. According to international investigations, the RSF’s fleet—including Chinese-made CH-95 and Wing Loong II drones—reaches the battlefield through a UAE-linked supply network routed through Chad and Libya. The SAF’s drones, including Iranian Mohajer-6 and Ababil-3 models and Turkish Bayraktar TB2 and Akinci aircraft, reportedly arrive with the support of Egypt, which has provided the army with aircraft, ammunition, and military coordination throughout the war. The current wave of attacks on El-Obeid accelerated after the historic capital of the massive Darfur region, El-Fasher, fell in October 2025—an event that was also followed by a horrific massacre in the city according to local witnesses and international monitors. On January 4, RSF drones hit El-Obeid’s city’s thermal power plant. The attack came as part of a wider wave that also struck the Merowe Dam and Kenana airbase in the city. On January 30, roughly 20 RSF drones struck government buildings in a rare daytime attack. The UN has said that drone attacks are now expanding beyond Kordofan and Darfur into the regions of Blue Nile, White Nile, and Khartoum itself. A strike on Khartoum International Airport on May 4 grounded all flights, raising fears that hostilities could return to the capital after a period of relative calm. “Total Collapse of Everything”Civilians in El-Obeid are struggling to maintain the surviving infrastructure in the city. A pediatrician at El-Obeid Teaching Hospital described the situation as a “total collapse of everything,” with the breakdown of supply chains and power infrastructure depriving children of life-saving interventions. He said he’s seen numerous cases where children have died because of the indirect impacts of airstrikes. “The child needs blood, and we don’t have any. He needs oxygen, but the generator has stopped. He needs to be transferred to a higher-level hospital, but no ambulance dares take the road,” said the doctor, who asked to be identified by the initials MT to protect his safety. “The drone didn’t strike this child directly. But it killed him.” The dire conditions are compounded by the rising number of displaced people arriving from other regions as refugees. “El-Obeid is hosting growing numbers of displaced people, while at the same time its own residents are suffering from repeated attacks on their livelihoods, infrastructure, and basic services,” said Majdi al-Naeem of the Sudan Human Rights Monitor. Al-Naeem said the attacks on infrastructure do not, in his view, serve any clear military objective, but instead impose direct burdens on the civilian population. “In my assessment, these attacks don’t serve a military purpose so much as they affect civilians’ lives, and targeting civilian objects is prohibited under international humanitarian law,” he said. On Monday, the Sudanese army and allied groups recaptured Bara, Al-Baraka, Um Sayala, Jabrat Al-Sheikh, and other areas on Sunday after heavy clashes with the RSF, according to military officials cited by Sudan Tribune. Officials said 73 RSF vehicles were destroyed, others seized, and numerous fighters killed. The advance opens a new supply corridor to El-Obeid, strengthening its eastern defenses. For the past few weeks, talk has been spreading of a possible RSF offensive once the city and its defenders have been sufficiently weakened by the siege. The SAF reclaiming the highway into El-Obeid will likely disrupt the RSF's momentum toward El-Obeid, restricting the movement of fighters, supplies, and reinforcements. Zahra Nurain, a mother of five living in the Karima neighborhood in the city’s northeast, said the talk of a potential large-scale battle has been a daily source of anxiety but has not pushed her toward leaving—a reflection of the limited choices available after more than three years of war. “We hear the news and rumors every day, and sometimes we follow the sounds of aircraft and explosions. But where would we go?” she said. “El-Obeid has become a refuge for many people during this war. We hope it does not become another battlefield.” Mohamed Wad Al-Sak is a Sudanese freelance journalist and multimedia producer covering conflict, displacement, and human rights across Sudan and East Africa. This article has been produced in collaboration with Egab. 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