Intensifying drone attacks on civilian infrastructure across Sudan are disrupting electricity, water and fuel supplies, putting lives at risk and hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid, the UN’s top official in the country has warned.
Hundreds of aid trucks are stranded due to fuel shortages, while hospitals are struggling to maintain lifesaving services, including dialysis.
Speaking to UN News, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown urged the international community to intervene to end the fighting and provide urgently needed funding, saying: “This is not about politics. This is about people.”
UN News: Let me begin by asking about the escalating drone attacks and their devastating impact on civilians. What are you seeing on the ground?
Denise Brown: There’s been an intense pattern of drone strikes over the past couple of weeks. What we’re seeing is what appear to be targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure, which, of course, is protected under international humanitarian law.
Sources of energy and fuel appear to be systematically targeted and destroyed. So already there’s an apparent violation here.
Essential services are also being massively disrupted. Colleagues from the World Health Organization (WHO) were at a hospital just outside Khartoum, and the electricity went out because of these drone strikes. The hospital has no generator, no solar panels. So, the 25 people who need dialysis had their treatment stopped, point blank.
There was nothing they could do without electricity. This affects women giving birth, children and everyone else. The same goes for water. There are also widespread fuel shortages.
In Khartoum, there are queues kilometres long as people wait for fuel. But what we’re seeing is tuk-tuk drivers – those who take people to work and to the market.
These are people who earn a daily wage and are having to wait several days in a row to get fuel, which means they’re not earning an income. That’s the direct impact of the widespread intensification of drone strikes and their immediate consequences for the civilian population.
We’ve also seen markets and displacement sites being hit. So, the attacks are widespread and, I have to say, increasingly worrying for us and scarring for the population.
