Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) appear to be preparing a major offensive on North Kordofan’s capital of El-Obeid .
In recent weeks, they have reportedly amassed troops around the strategic city, which links southern and western Sudan with the Nile Valley. The army, known as the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), uses the city as a key logistics hub for military operations. Both the SAF’s 5th Infantry Division and its joint operations room with Egypt are based there. The latter was set up shortly after the RSF captured North Darfur’s capital of El-Fasher in October 2025. The fall of El-Fasher saw the RSF execute thousands of civilians, abduct thousands more and subject women and girls to widespread sexual violence. The United Nations said the campaign bore “ hallmarks of genocide” and is now warning that El-Obeid could experience similar atrocities.
On 6 July, the UN Human Rights Council passed a motion condemning the escalating violence and calling for an urgent inquiry into recent abuses in the city. Meanwhile, many civilians are trying to flee before it’s too late. “People are rushing to buy bus tickets because they are scared of what might happen. About ten buses carrying 50 passengers leave each day,” one local relief worker, who requested anonymity due to the hostile security environment, told The New Arab . Trapped and destitute Since Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023, the SAF and RSF have committed grave abuses such as summary executions, torture, and the obstruction of aid from enemy-controlled territory. The RSF draws most of its fighters from nomadic “Arab” communities and has perpetrated additional atrocities, including genocidal violence, against non-Arab farming communities in Darfur. The group often surrounds and bombards cities with drones before piercing the SAF’s defences to commit atrocities. El-Obeid is currently surrounded from the south, west, and north, while RSF drones target vehicles entering and leaving from the east.
Amid warnings from the global community that El-Obeid could become another El-Fasher, civilians are unsure whether SAF can protect the city.
“There is a general sense of fear and anxiety in the city of what may come…people are just putting their trust in God. They are hoping God can make their lives a bit easier,” another local activist told The New Arab. Over the last few weeks, RSF drones have bypassed the SAF’s air defences, targeting fuel depots, water stations, and generators. The strikes have caused food and water shortages and extended blackouts. Under International Humanitarian Law (IHL), such attacks may qualify as war crimes . Although some civilians are fleeing, the majority are staying put. Some 500,000 people languish in El-Obeid, including 100,000 who have been displaced from Darfur and surrounding towns.
Many exhausted their savings and can’t afford to flee again. Others refuse to abandon their homes, jobs and communities, even as living conditions deteriorate.
“It’s complicated for a lot of people to leave. Some are elderly, and others have work commitments. Many refuse to leave loved ones behind,” Basma Shams, a Sudanese activist living abroad and with close family in El-Obeid, told The New Arab . Repression and control In addition to RSF drone attacks, civilians are increasingly being harassed and monitored by the SAF and its allied militias. Activists and journalists are being closely watched, dissuading them from revealing any information to peers and foreign journalists which undermines the SAF’s claim that the security situation is under control. Sources from El-Obeid also described a general sense of lawlessness, noting that SAF-backed militias loot and rob at gunpoint. Civilians are sometimes killed after refusing to hand over their belongings, prompting most to stay indoors after sundown. “Civilians have no security, no services and no psychological support. There is nobody to help them,” Shams told The New Arab .
Still, nothing frightens people more than the thought of an RSF invasion. The group hopes El-Obeid can serve as a key hub for planning new attacks on the capital of Khartoum, which it lost control of in March 2025 . But with the rainy season expected to pick up in July, the RSF has just a few weeks to launch a ground offensive. Otherwise, they’ll have to wait at least two months for heavy rains to subside, so that their troops can manoeuvre. “The SAF is ready to protect the Sudanese people,” claimed Mohamed Ibrahim, a civil servant in the SAF-backed government in El-Obeid. “They have deployed to every front, and they are ready to confront the RSF,” he told The New Arab . International action? On 18 June, the coalition for Atrocity Prevention and Justice for Sudan warned that an assault was imminent on El-Obeid during a session at the UN Human Rights Council. The coalition includes several western states such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada and Norway. Days later, the United States Department of State issued a separate warning and called on the RSF not to escalate attacks on El-Obeid. Despite the warnings, many of the above states are directly implicated in selling weapons to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is the RSF’s main backer. This has led to accusations that the US and UK are prioritising their business relationships with the Emirates over mitigating mass atrocities in Sudan. In May 2025, the UAE reportedly agreed to invest $1.4 trillion in US infrastructure and $30 billion in growing UK sectors such as energy and technology.
“A lot of these countries are partners in this war against the Sudanese people,” Ibrahim, from El-Obeid, told TNA .
A whistleblower from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) reportedly revealed that the office refused to publicise warnings of an RSF genocide in El-Fasher, presumably not to upset the UAE.
Nathaniel Raymond, the head of the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, which uses satellite imagery to track human rights violations in Sudan, also recently testified before the UK Parliament. He said the FCDO admitted in private that the UAE was pressuring it to keep mum about RSF atrocities in Darfur. And while the UK and other states are now issuing statements about El-Obeid, Raymond believes they still won’t take action against the UAE. “I think they want to cover their behinds for their failure to say anything ahead of the fall of El-Fasher,” he told The New Arab .
“These [new] warnings are [just substituting for taking real action] to hold the UAE accountable,” he added. Mat Nashed is an award-nominated journalist who has covered the MENA region since the Arab Spring Follow him on X: @matnashed Edited by Charlie Hoyle