Denise Brown, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, told UN News in an interview published on Tuesday 3 November that an intense pattern of drone strikes over the previous couple of weeks appears to be hitting civilian infrastructure, and that sources of energy and fuel appear to have been systematically targeted and destroyed. She said hundreds of UN aid trucks are stuck for lack of fuel. The UN noon briefing on Friday 6 November referred again to repeated attacks on energy infrastructure. Drone strikes in Sudan, including on power stations, featured in our posts of 21 and 26 October and our Brief of 2 November; this post is about what the pattern means for moving people, fuel and aid, and is written for close protection and travel security teams supporting NGO, media and aid movements in Sudan.
What the UN says
In the interview, Brown cited repeated strikes on power stations and fuel stations, and said markets and displacement sites have also been hit. She said: "There is no defence for repeatedly hitting power stations and fuel stations." She gave one example of the knock-on effect: World Health Organization colleagues were at a hospital just outside Khartoum when the electricity went out because of the strikes, and because the hospital has no generator and no solar panels, 25 people who need dialysis had their treatment stopped. She said water supplies are also affected, fuel shortages are widespread, and fuel queues in Khartoum are kilometres long, with daily-wage drivers waiting several days in a row for fuel.
On aid movement, Brown said the UN has hundreds of trucks stuck because of a lack of fuel, and that "if we don't have fuel, we can't move." She said the World Food Programme's convoys have been hit seven times this year and 20 times over the past two years (her figures as of 3 November), with loss of life and loss of food, and that teams negotiate daily to reach places such as Dilling in South Kordofan and parts of Blue Nile, Darfur and West Kordofan. She said WFP is cutting both the number of people it serves in Sudan and its rations. She also said there has been progress on visas and permits for aid staff.
The noon briefing of 6 November relayed UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration as saying that continued fighting and drone attacks are driving further displacement and restricting their operations, and that damaged infrastructure is hampering the movement of emergency supplies. As of 6 November, it said an estimated 15.4 million people across Sudan need emergency shelter and household items, agencies can reach only 10 per cent of them, and 936,000 people have been helped so far. It said Sudan's 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan needs $2.9 billion to assist 20 million of the 33 million people in need, and was about 47 per cent funded as of that date.
What the UN does not say
Brown said she does not know where the drone strikes are originating from, and neither of the two UN sources cited here attributes these strikes to any party, so we do not. (Our 26 October post reported the UN human rights office attributing earlier strikes to both the army and the RSF.) Neither source gives casualty figures for the strikes, a count of power or fuel sites hit, or the dates and places of individual strikes beyond the hospital outside Khartoum. The interview is dated 3 November, six days before publication of this post, and the briefing is dated 6 November; the situation may have moved since.
What the FCDO says
The FCDO advises against all travel to Sudan, except the Hala'ib Triangle and the Bir Tawil Trapezoid, where it advises against all but essential travel. This is standing advice: the page was last changed on 11 May 2026, on airport operations, so it has not been revised since the strikes the UN describes. The page says the British Embassy in Khartoum is closed and there are no British consular staff in Sudan. Its safety page says: "There is a high threat of detention, including kidnap, enforced disappearances and unlawful arrest across Sudan." It adds: "Humanitarian aid workers and journalists are viewed as legitimate targets." It also says: "There are regular communication blackouts." The FCDO says road travel involves heightened risk and should only be undertaken if strictly necessary, advises against taking photographs near public utilities, including petrol stations, and says a licence may be needed for some equipment, including satellite phones.
What it means for close protection and travel security teams
This is The Ops Con's reading, not the UN's or the FCDO's.
When the UN says fuel and power sites appear to be targets, fuel becomes a movement constraint as well as a cost. Plan fuel for the whole route plus a reserve before a vehicle leaves, rather than counting on resupply on the way, and expect long waits where fuel is available at all. Keep any stop at a fuel station or near a power site short, and do not photograph either, which the FCDO already advises against. A hospital in a casualty plan may lose power without warning, as the one outside Khartoum did, so confirm its generator and backup arrangements rather than assume them. The UN's own convoy figures show that aid convoys are being hit, so treat travelling with or near an aid convoy as a risk to assess, not a protection. With regular communication blackouts, agree check-in times and a fallback for a missed check-in before departure, and check the licensing position on satellite phones before taking one in. Teams supporting aid workers or journalists should brief them on the FCDO's detention and kidnap wording, which names both groups.
