Civilians in Sudan’s El Obeid trapped between drones and incarceration

El Obeid’s civilians face growing danger from air attacks and detention

Provpnmatrix.com – Residents of El Obeid, a major city in Sudan’s North Kordofan region, are enduring a worsening combination of threats: drone attacks attributed to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and widespread arrests carried out by security actors linked to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). UN-appointed independent investigators say the conflict is spreading into more areas, using increasingly advanced methods and placing civilians at even greater risk.

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan has detailed conditions in its new report, Sudan’s Unrelenting War: Civilian Devastation and Deepening Insecurity in El Obeid. Its findings describe a city where homes, schools, places sheltering displaced people and essential water and electricity infrastructure have all been hit during RSF drone strikes.

Such attacks have killed and injured civilians and may constitute war crimes, the investigators said. The damage to services has added another burden for families already trying to live through a conflict that began in April 2023, when the two former military allies turned their weapons on each other.

Health services under severe strain

The impact on El Obeid’s medical system has been particularly grave. Only about 30 per cent of the city’s hospitals were still functioning after attacks, an expert told the Mission. When hospitals close or operate at reduced capacity, people injured in strikes, pregnant women, children and patients needing routine treatment all face longer and more dangerous journeys to find care.

For civilians, the destruction of water, electricity and health facilities can be as consequential as the immediate violence. Electricity failures can disrupt medical equipment and water pumping, while damaged schools and displacement sites remove spaces that communities rely on for shelter, education and basic stability.

October saw the largest number of drone attacks against civilians since the war started, Mission chair Mohamed Chande Othman said. He warned that governments supplying weapons could not claim ignorance of how those arms were being used.

“States supplying weapons cannot say that they are unaware.”

Arrests, surveillance and overcrowded detention

Danger in El Obeid is not limited to the air. SAF-affiliated security bodies have increased surveillance and have targeted people involved in humanitarian relief, human rights work and peace efforts. Investigators said thousands of people have been seized by SAF security cells, held in unofficial detention sites and in El Obeid Central Prison, and subjected to torture.

“Thousands have been arrested by SAF security cells, detained and tortured in unofficial locations and in El Obeid Central Prison, kept under appalling conditions,” said Mona Rishmawi, an expert member of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan.

The reported conditions inside El Obeid Central Prison underline the scale of the crisis. The facility is believed to hold roughly 2,000 people, despite having space for around 450. One former detainee described as many as 40 prisoners held in a cell approximately 2.5 metres by 2 metres. Severe overcrowding can make access to sanitation, medical care, sleep and personal safety extremely difficult.

The focus on aid workers, rights defenders and peace advocates also carries wider consequences. Those groups are often among the people documenting abuses, helping displaced families and supporting local efforts to reduce harm. Pressure on them can further narrow the space for civilian protection at a time when needs are escalating.

Investigations extend beyond El Obeid

The Mission is examining other deadly incidents connected to the war. These include a drone attack on a market in Abyei on 19 October, allegedly carried out by forces of the military government, which killed at least 80 people. Investigators are also looking into alleged Egyptian airstrikes near the Sudan-Egypt border on gold-mining locations where at least 72 miners were killed.

Questions over international support for the combatants remain central to the investigation. Othman said evidence pointed to individuals and entities in Chad, Puntland in Somalia, southeastern Libya and the United Arab Emirates as participants in a cross-border network supporting the RSF. However, the investigators had not linked neighbouring States themselves to that network.

The Mission had recently presented September findings to the General Assembly’s Third Committee concerning external backing for the parties fighting in Sudan. The issue is significant because weapons, transport, financing and other forms of support can influence both the duration of a conflict and the scale of harm faced by civilians.

Call for broader arms restrictions and accountability

Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, another member of the Mission, repeated its appeal for the UN arms embargo to cover the whole of Sudan rather than Darfur alone. The current embargo is restricted to Darfur, despite violence and civilian harm occurring in other regions.

“Sovereignty should not shield mass atrocity crimes, period,” she said.

Ezeilo also marked one year since the RSF captured El Fasher, stressing that time must not weaken the demand for accountability. El Fasher has become a symbol of the wider cost of impunity in Sudan’s war, where communities have repeatedly faced displacement, attacks on civilian sites and the collapse of essential services.

“The passage of time should not diminish attention to what has happened in El Fasher. On the contrary, it should remind us of the cost of impunity.”

For people in El Obeid, the investigators’ findings point to a conflict that is becoming harder to escape. Drone warfare can place civilians in danger far from front lines, while mass detention and surveillance create fear on the ground. Protecting civilians will require attention not only to battlefield developments, but also to the hospitals, prisons, public utilities and community networks that determine whether people can survive the war with dignity.