The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday that drones are striking Sudan’s power stations, with up to 15 hit in October. The agency described drones that travel up to 1,500 kilometers before reaching their targets.
UNICEF spokesperson James Elder spoke to journalists in Geneva after returning from Sudan. He said that in the last week of October, not a single day passed without a drone strike on a power station. He said humanitarian agencies such as UNICEF cannot determine who was behind at least 15 strikes on power stations in October.
When a power station is hit, water pumps and water treatment stop, Elder said. Families are then forced to turn to expensive and unsafe alternatives. He said that, unlike in Ukraine, damaged Sudanese energy sites are not repaired.
The strikes come during fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which were once allies. According to the UN News report, well over 15 million people urgently need shelter across Sudan. Drone strikes on civilians, markets and key public infrastructure continue to hinder aid efforts.
UNICEF also warned that disease is spreading. It said pockets of cholera have been identified and that the cold chain, the temperature-controlled system that keeps vaccines and medicines usable, is increasingly threatened. Elder said farmers are losing the ability to irrigate crops because the generators that run their pumps are too expensive to operate amid fuel shortages. He said harvests suffer and prices keep rising.
Elder said an estimated 825,000 children under five in Sudan are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year. He described it as the type that kills.
Elder described a teenager named Buri, one of the young war victims he met from El Obeid. According to Elder, an explosive took both of the boy’s hands, and he lives in a tent and learns online in the mornings. UN Human Rights Council investigators say civilians in El Obeid live in constant fear of drone attack, the report said.
In a warning reported Nov. 4, Denise Brown said intensifying drone strikes on civilian infrastructure were disrupting electricity, water and fuel. She said hundreds of aid trucks were stranded because of fuel shortages.
UNICEF said that, with partners, it has treated hundreds of thousands of children for the deadliest form of malnutrition. The agency said it has provided health care to more than 2.5 million people and vaccinated millions of children. It said teams have repaired water systems and connected them to solar power, helping keep safe water flowing for close to eight million people.
Elder said UNICEF’s response in Sudan is just one-third funded. He said that with “so many crises happening at once, everything, everything is at breaking point.”