RSF drone strike kills 11, hits power facility in north Sudan
April 25, 2025 (ATBARA) – At least 11 people were killed and 22 injured in a drone strike attributed to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Atbara, northern Sudan, on Friday, hitting a center housing displaced people and impacting power infrastructure, medical sources and local reports said.
The attack targeted the city in the River Nile State. Local sources told Sudan Tribune a drone struck the Railway Authority’s Vocational Training Institute, which was sheltering dozens of displaced families. The Sudan Doctors Network confirmed 11 fatalities and 22 injuries resulting from the strike on the displacement centre.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing drones fire four missiles, causing large explosions and sending smoke billowing over the shelter and a nearby transformer station.
The strike adds to weeks of intensified RSF attacks on strategic civilian and military sites in Northern and River Nile states. Previous attacks damaged the Merowe Dam, leading to widespread power outages that have crippled medical facilities, water stations, and farming, fueling fears of a collapsed agricultural season in Northern State, according to reports.
Sudan’s Public Prosecutor, Al-Fateh Tayfour, visited injured victims at the Police Hospital in Atbara and the morgue holding the deceased. He ordered an urgent criminal investigation into the targeting of civilians and civilian objects, calling for swift justice against perpetrators and inciters, his office stated.
Reports indicated the victims included members of two families, one of which lost a mother and her four daughters.
The Sudanese Electricity Company’s media council announced separately that the Atbara transformer station had been hit by drones for the fourth time in a short period, cutting power to the River Nile and Red Sea states. Civil Defence teams were working to extinguish the resulting fire, the council said, adding that damage assessment would follow.
These intensified air attacks follow recent threats by RSF Deputy Commander Abdel Rahim Daglo to invade Sudan’s northern states.