The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Monday condemning escalating violence by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the city of El-Obeid, North Kordofan State and ordering an urgent investigation into abuses committed there.
The move comes amid mounting UN and international warnings of a deepening humanitarian emergency and widening attacks on the city and its outskirts, as health and humanitarian conditions across Kordofan and Darfur continue to deteriorate.
Great Britain tabled the resolution, backed by 14 other countries, after earlier warnings that mass atrocities could unfold as the RSF rallied forces around one of Sudan’s largest cities, in a scene recalling last year’s siege and capture of El-Fasher in North Darfur.
The resolution focused on the severe deterioration of humanitarian and human rights conditions in El-Obeid, demanding an end to attacks on civilian areas, a humanitarian truce paving the way to an immediate ceasefire, unimpeded humanitarian aid access, and stronger protections for civilians.
By establishing an urgent inquiry into violations in the city, the resolution signals growing international alarm that El-Obeid could become the next epicenter of mass atrocities. It also reaffirms that Sudan’s crisis has no military solution and calls for a civilian-led political process.
On the ground, Mohamed Faisal, spokesperson for the Sudan Doctors Network, said RSF drone attacks on El-Obeid have intensified in recent weeks, targeting critical infrastructure including the city’s main power station. The strikes have caused power outages across large parts of the city, disrupting emergency wards and dialysis units.
Speaking to Al Qahera News, Faisal said that the strikes also hit a shelter housing displaced people, killing two and wounding several others, and hit a secondary school, injuring eight female students.
He said the RSF had widened its targeting to include roadside fuel stations and civilian homes, in what he described as a bid to maximize destruction. Even so, he noted, the humanitarian situation in El-Obeid remains relatively stable for now, with no sign yet of mass displacement.
El-Obeid has been under siege for close to 18 months and subjected to repeated drone strikes on its infrastructure and civilian facilities, leaving the city facing an escalating threat.
The UN says the city, home to roughly half a million people including nearly 100,000 displaced, is suffering severe shortages of water and basic services. Fifteen documented drone strikes on El-Obeid and its surroundings in three weeks last month killed at least 45 civilians and wounded 41 others.
The strikes have also damaged fuel stations, power facilities, markets, schools, and water infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented abuses along displacement routes, including summary executions, abductions, torture, and sexual violence, fueling fears that El-Obeid could meet the same fate as El-Fasher if it comes under full-scale assault.
Mohamed Refaat, who heads the office’s mission in Sudan, said that more than 500,000 people inside El-Obeid require humanitarian assistance, warning the city risks becoming “another El-Fasher” without urgent intervention. He added that the office’s Shelter Cluster is grappling with a severe funding shortfall that is limiting its capacity to support families.
Separately, the Associated Press cited UNICEF as saying that more than 300 children have been killed or injured in Sudan over the past six months, most of them in drone attacks. UNICEF said fighting is now concentrated in the Kordofan, Darfur, and Blue Nile states, with drone warfare accounting for 60 percent of casualties.
The agency renewed its call on all parties to the conflict to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, allow humanitarian access, and take every possible measure to shield children in a war that has killed at least 59,000 people, displaced around 13 million, and left more than 30 million in need of humanitarian aid.
Alongside the military escalation, health and humanitarian conditions in Kordofan and Darfur are deteriorating rapidly. Sudanese relief group Dar Hamar Emergency Room reported 30 deaths and around 800 cholera cases across more than 25 villages in the localities of Wad Banda and An Nuhud in West Kordofan, amid acute shortages of medicine and intravenous fluids and the partial or full closure of some health facilities.
The Sudan Doctors Network also warned of critical conditions in the Western Bara area of North Kordofan, where more than 200,000 people, including around 20,000 children, are living amid food and medicine shortages. More than 100 measles cases among children and 45 suspected cholera cases have also been recorded there.
