Sudan awaits the arrival of spare parts to repair the Merowe Dam power grid.

August 6, 2026 (PEN) Sudan’s Minister of Energy and Oil, Al-Mutasim Ibrahim, said that Sudan is awaiting the arrival of spare parts from abroad to repair the Merowe Dam electricity network, which went out of service following a fire that broke out last Saturday.

Ibrahim added, in statements to the newspaper “Al-Sharq Al-Awsat”, that the engineering teams are continuing maintenance work around the clock, without specifying a final date for the restoration of electricity, noting that efforts are currently focused on restoring power to the Northern State within two days, in order to avoid affecting the agricultural season.

He explained that the fire damaged the transformer cables that supply the states of the Nile River, the Red Sea, the Northern State and the capital Khartoum, noting that the Merowe Dam produces more than 50% of Sudan’s electricity, and that any stoppage in it leads to a cutoff of supply to most of the states.

The minister noted that the Sovereignty Council and the Council of Ministers are monitoring the ongoing reform work to restore the network to service.

Ibrahim accused the Rapid Support Forces of launching attacks on electricity infrastructure since April 2023, saying that about 60% of the sector's facilities had been destroyed, and that the Merowe Dam, the country's largest hydroelectric power plant, had been hit by nine drone attacks.

The minister estimated the losses in the electricity sector at about $14 billion, noting that production capacity has declined from 2,500 megawatts to 1,900 megawatts currently.

For his part, former Energy Minister Adel Ibrahim said that repairing the damaged cables could take weeks or months, explaining that addressing the crisis requires stopping the war, conducting a comprehensive assessment, and providing funding in the millions of dollars, and that rehabilitation could take more than a year.

In the same context, the Ministry of Energy and Oil announced last Tuesday the resumption of power supply to a number of strategic facilities, water stations and hospitals in Khartoum using available energy.

The total output of the Merowe Dam is about 1200 megawatts, and its network has suffered a near-total collapse three times since the outbreak of the war.