Large parts of Sudan’s Khartoum, White Nile and North Kordofan states were plunged into darkness on Monday after electricity substations supplying the regions went offline, deepening the country’s prolonged power crisis.
The widespread outage disrupted electricity supplies across the three states, with the cause of the failures initially unclear and no official timetable announced for restoring power.
Local Sudanese media reported that the blackout began around 5 p.m. on October 12, with sources at the Sudanese Electricity Company confirming that power generation at the Merowe hydroelectric dam in northern Sudan had also been interrupted.
The sources initially expected electricity supplies to return gradually within four to eight hours, although there was no immediate confirmation that service had been restored.
The latest disruption comes as Sudan continues to struggle with an electricity network severely weakened by more than three years of war, repeated equipment failures and extensive damage to vital infrastructure.
In August, a fire at the Merowe Dam power station damaged major transmission cables, triggering widespread outages across Khartoum and several northern and eastern states.
The incident forced authorities to undertake extensive repairs and rely on alternative power generation while engineers worked to restore connections to the national grid.
Sudan’s energy authorities have previously acknowledged that damaged substations, shortages of spare parts, fuel supply difficulties and reduced generating capacity have contributed to persistent electricity shortages.
The recurring blackouts have raised concerns about essential services, particularly hospitals, water treatment facilities and businesses already struggling with the economic consequences of the conflict.
