Sudan: el-Obeid Faces Humanitarian Crisis Amid RSF Drone Attacks and SAF Offensive

Flattened houses and rubble where a school once stood: These are the scenes that have appeared in footage of the Sudanese city of el-Obeid published by Ayin Network, a nonpartisan Sudanese media outlet.

Drone attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have caused enormous damage to civilian infrastructure, including power grids, transformers, water treatment plants, schools, universities and hospitals in the capital of North Kordofan.

The local population is struggling to survive, according to Ahmed Awad, a native of el-Obeid and a project manager for children's rights organization Plan International there. The city — whose population previously numbered half a million but has now become home to several hundred thousand people who are displaced — is under siege, he added.

There is a shortage of medical supplies as well as food and safe, clean water, and Awad said he saw long lines of people at just one water pump: "Sometimes you can spend all day to get one liter of water for two or three days." Most of the time, children and teenagers are the ones sent to fetch water.

He added that a drone had hit a primary school and killed three children, which had caused trauma among other children, many of whom no longer dared go to school.

"One of the mothers said three of her children cannot sleep because they are always in fear of something happening again," he said.

Even when they're sitting in their classrooms, they live with the constant fear that a drone could strike at any moment. Awad and his colleagues at Plan International are working to provide psychological support to the affected children.

Sudan's strategic crossroads

El-Obeid is a strategically important location. The city is a trading hub in the middle of the desert on the only major route between Sudan's capital, Khartoum — which is controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) — and the western Darfur region, large parts of which are under the control of the RSF.

El-Obeid is currently controlled by the army, which has some 13,000 soldiers stationed there, and has been on the front line since fighting shifted from Darfur to Kordofan at the beginning of the year. The RSF has deployed troops to about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) beyond the city limits, and has been using drones to bomb civilian infrastructure.

Warnings of mass atrocities

Analysts, aid organizations and the United Nations have warned that the RSF could soon capture el-Obeid. They fear a similar scenario to that which unfolded in the city of el-Fasher in the neighboring state of North Darfur in October 2025, when the RSF began by bombing infrastructure before storming the city after an 18-month siege.

Earlier this year, a UN Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva detailed atrocities in the capture of el-Fasher and identified "hallmarks of genocide."

“We warn that an escalation of the situation could lead to a repeat of the horrific human rights violations and abuses against civilians that we documented in Al-Fashir,” numerous human rights organizations said in a joint appeal.

"We are alarmed by the ongoing hostilities around the city, including frequent drone strikes," said Pekka Haavisto, the UN chief's personal envoy for Sudan, in June. "These are already affecting the civilians and disrupting humanitarian aid to the city. Any further escalation of the situation would place thousands of people at risk."

Growing up under drones

The situation is particularly dire for the children trapped in el-Obeid, says Francesco Lanino, deputy country director of the children's charity Save the Children in Sudan. Drone attacks on schools and displacement camps have caused severe trauma.

Lanino recently visited the Tawila displacement camp near el-Fashir in Darfur, which was taken over by the RSF in October. There, he encountered children struggling to process what had happened to them.

"We met several children who refused to speak afterwards," Lanino said. Many found it difficult to understand why they had experienced such violence.

Lanino is concerned about the long-term impact of the conflict. "If these traumas are not addressed, they could seek revenge, because all this stress, all this trauma, could erupt in a new wave of violence."

Sudan's army has launched a new offensive in Kordofan from the capital, Khartoum, and says it has taken control of the 360-kilometer-long highway linking Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city, with el-Obeid.

SAF Chief of Staff Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan recently inspected the newly captured areas in North Kordofan by helicopter and congratulated his troops. The advance has reopened supply routes to SAF units in El Obeid.

Residents of the previously besieged city celebrated the arrival of army forces, as the immediate threat appears to have receded for now.

As they retreated, RSF fighters looted markets and villages in North Kordofan and committed human rights violations against local residents, according to the Sudan Tribune media platform.

Last Monday, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as "Hemeti," told commanders in the affected areas they no longer needed to wait for orders from the high command and could instead launch counteroffensives at their own discretion.

The move could lead to further attacks on civilians and additional looting.