Sudan, 21 October 2025 - A series of drone strikes hit Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, on Tuesday morning, targeting key infrastructure including Khartoum International Airport, just days before authorities planned to reopen it for domestic flights after more than a year of closure.
Local media, Rakoba News, reported that residents in several neighbourhoods heard the sound of at least 11 drones followed by multiple explosions near the airport and a nearby electricity converter station. Witnesses described seeing plumes of smoke rising from the area, though it remains unclear whether the explosions were caused by direct hits or by air defences intercepting the drones.
The attack comes barely 24 hours after Sudan’s Civil Aviation Authority announced that Khartoum International Airport would resume limited domestic operations on Wednesday. The airport has been out of service since April 2023, when fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke out, devastating much of the capital.
The planned reopening was seen as a symbolic step by Sudan’s de facto government, led by the SAF, which has been seeking to demonstrate control of Khartoum following the RSF’s partial withdrawal from parts of the city earlier this year. In recent months, engineers and technicians have been working to rehabilitate sections of the airport and restore basic navigation systems damaged during earlier clashes.
The RSF, a powerful paramilitary group that grew out of the Janjaweed militia accused of atrocities in Darfur, has not claimed responsibility for the drone strikes. The United Nations and humanitarian agencies have warned that renewed fighting in Khartoum could further derail fragile peace efforts and worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis. More than 10 million people have been displaced since the war began in 2023, making Sudan home to the world’s largest internal displacement crisis, according to the UN.
As of Tuesday evening, there was no official statement from the Sudanese army or the Civil Aviation Authority regarding casualties or damage caused by the strikes.