PORT SUDAN, Sudan, Dec 18, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Major cities in Sudan including capital Khartoum and Port Sudan were plunged into darkness on Thursday, several witnesses told AFP, after deadly drone strikes targeted a key power plant in the east of the country.

Strikes targeted transformers at the Al-Muqrin power station in the city of Atbara in River Nile State, the national electricity company said.

A power plant official told AFP an initial strike targeted the plant and a second strike hit rescue workers, killing two rescuers and leaving one other person injured.

"Two members of the civil defence were killed while trying to extinguish the fire that erupted after the first drone strike by the militia," said a power plant official, referring to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The fire was yet to be brought under control as of Thursday morning, according to the Sudan Electricity Company.

The River Nile State government in a statement confirmed two rescue workers were killed.

Witnesses reported seeing flames and smoke rising in Atbara, which is controlled by the army in its ongoing war with the RSF.

The damaged power station is a strategic hub in the Sudanese electricity grid, receiving power generated by the Merowe Dam -- the country's largest source of hydroelectric energy -- before its redistribution to other parts of the country.

Since April 2023, Sudan's regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a brutal conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million more and devastated infrastructure.

The UN says the conflict has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

In recent months the RSF has been accused of launching drone attacks on vast areas controlled by the army, targeting civilian infrastructure and causing power outages affecting millions of people.