El-Obeid is fast becoming the next major pressure point in Sudan’s war, as thousands of people who fled fighting now find themselves in danger again. The el-Obeid shelter crisis has deepened as paramilitary RSF fighters move closer to the army-held city in North Kordofan, a key battleground for both sides.
Displaced families have packed into the city hoping for safety, but the UN’s International Organization for Migration says el-Obeid has turned into a central refuge for people escaping violence nearby. Satellite imagery shows the main displacement camp has grown sharply since March, and aid workers say dozens of new arrivals continue to come in each day. Mohamed Refaat, the IOM’s mission chief in Sudan, said many families have already been uprooted before and are once again being forced to leave their homes and livelihoods behind.
Warnings of an RSF attack have now come from the UN and G7 foreign ministers, who fear atrocities could be repeated if the city falls. Their concern is shaped in part by the massacre in el-Fasher last October, when thousands were killed after the RSF overran the city’s defenders. In and around el-Obeid, verified footage has shown RSF fighters in armored trucks in nearby Nyala, while recent video placed them within 40km of the city.
The pressure on el-Obeid has not only come from the battlefield. The RSF launched a record number of drone strikes on the city in June, according to the monitoring group Acled, and only reduced them in July because the force was responding to military attacks elsewhere in Sudan. The UN says more than 83,000 civilians have fled other parts of the state and sought shelter in the city, but conditions have worsened as supply routes were cut and aid flights through the airport stopped, according to Islamic Relief.
