The United Nations has issued an urgent warning saying that Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) could imminently lay siege to el-Obeid, risking large-scale atrocities.
El-Obeid is the capital of the North Kordofan state in Sudan.
“We have seen this playbook before,” the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, said, referring to North Darfur’s capital el-Fasher. “We know where it led then, and cannot now allow a repeat of the preventable atrocities we documented in el-Fasher and Zamzam IDP camp.”
El-Fasher fell to the RSF in October 2025, following an eighteen-month siege, which Middle East Eye reported caused widespread massacres, mass rapes, and looting by the RSF.
The UN concluded that these actions “bore the hallmarks of genocide”. Turk stressed that people across Kordofan face grave danger “in the absence of action to halt the imminent offensive and further military escalation”.
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The warning comes amid a significant buildup of RSF troops and intensified artillery shelling and drone strikes in el-Obeid.
According to reports from the Ayin Network, consistent drone strikes targeting fuel stations and trucks have triggered an “acute fuel crisis”.
The crisis has paralysed local public transit and disrupted water treatment facilities, forcing residents to navigate el-Obeid on foot or in donkey-drawn carts, as they attempt to flee towards the neighbouring White Nile State.
The RSF can take control of the Kordofan region through a siege on el-Obeid. It has strongholds in the Jabal Abu Sunun area, 40 kilometres to the west of el-Obeid; the Kazqil area, 70 kilometres to the south; and the city of Bara, 60 kilometres north.
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Fearing a repeat of the violence in el-Fasher, the Coalition for Atrocity Prevention and Justice for Sudan, comprising Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom, presented a joint statement to the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday.
Backed by 21 other countries, the coalition demanded that the RSF cease its assault on el-Obeid and called on all parties to “descalate” and adhere to international humanitarian law.
They urged foreign states to apply maximum pressure on the RSF, the Sudanese Armed Forces, and their respective allies to prevent atrocities.
However, the document notably avoided naming the United Arab Emirates, which Middle East Eye has reported provides financial and military backing to the RSF through a network of supply routes spanning Libya, Chad, Uganda, and the breakaway regions of Somalia.
They urged all parties to de-escalate and adhere to international humanitarian law, demanding that states apply maximum pressure on the “Rapid Support Forces, Sudanese Armed Forces, and their allies to prevent atrocities and protect civilians”.
UNHCR did not respond to MEE’s requests for comment by the time of publication.
