Politics

El-Obeid: fears of a new wave of brutality in Sudan

The central city is a strategic prize but increasingly encircled by the RSF paramilitary force. Home to almost a million people, a third of whom are already displaced, it could also be a bloodbath

AFP

A Sudanese woman sits with her child at the Al-Rahmaniya camp for displaced persons, near the city of El Obeid in the South Kordofan region of Sudan, on June 25, 2026.

El-Obeid: fears of a new wave of brutality in Sudan

Shawgi Abdelazim

last update on 04 Aug 2026

Sadly, grimly, but unsurprisingly, the fears of atrocities envisaged in the Sudanese city of El-Fasher, in the western region of Darfur, were realised once the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group finally overran the besieged hold-out in 2025. There are now similar fears of atrocities envisaged in the Sudanese city of El-Obeid, which, like El-Fasher, is besieged by the RSF and struggling to hold out.

Observers broadly agree that the RSF assault on El-Fasher was the most brutal episode of Sudan’s three-year war, but El-Obeid has now endured a similar siege for more than two months, and the paramilitary group’s encirclement of this strategic city continues. The RSF has warned residents of the consequences of remaining there. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has shown its resolve in defending El-Obeid, but the pattern now looks worryingly familiar.

El-Obeid is home to nearly one million civilians, around a third of whom have already been displaced from other cities ravaged by war. The city forms a vital bridge between central Sudan, with routes leading north and east, and the western regions of Darfur and Kordofan. Its position at the heart of the country has made it a major commercial corridor linking the agricultural production centres of the west with the industrial regions of central and northern Sudan.

It is also an important trading hub for goods produced and manufactured centrally, and for imports arriving from the east, while hosting Sudan’s largest market for agricultural commodities, particularly crops grown under rain-fed cultivation. Yet during this devastating civil war, El-Obeid’s economic and strategic advantage has become a liability. It is now the subject of a fierce fight and the prize both sides consider essential in the broader course of this war. On 27 July, three RSF drones attacked central El-Obeid, including banks and markets, while army drones targeted RSF units.

Sudan’s central prize

So important is this trading hub that the SAF and RSF both appear prepared to leave it burning and scarred rather than give it up to the enemy. Its extensive road network, linking it to every corner of Sudan, makes the city a natural assembly point for forces and a crucial supply corridor. If the army keeps control, its forces can advance towards the RSF-held areas of West Kordofan and, from there, Darfur.

Its extensive road network, linking it to every corner of Sudan, make the city a natural assembly point for forces and a crucial supply corridor

SAF General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is determined to do so, and to "liberate Darfur," even though few think that possible for now. In reality, El-Obeid is the SAF's final defensive wall. If the RSF take the city, it would effectively consolidate control over the wider Kordofan region and its three states: North, South and West Kordofan. It already controls parts of Kordofan, particularly West Kordofan, which is a main gateway to Darfur, and is working with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in destabilising parts of South and North Kordofan. Informed sources have confirmed the movement of large RSF columns towards towns in North Kordofan and towards El-Obeid itself.

REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh — A Reuters reporter displays a video of RSF commander al-Fateh Abdullah Idris, known as Abu Lulu, on his phone.

From the paramilitary force's perspective, El-Obeid forms a forward defensive barrier protecting the territories it holds in Darfur and West Kordofan. It also carries considerable weight in the propaganda war; its fall would shatter the army's claim that the liberation of Darfur is drawing near. Losing a major central city such as El-Obeid would cause the SAF narrative to unravel and hand the RSF a major psychological victory, boosting its fighters' morale.

Victories and threats

In recent days, the army has captured several towns and areas in North Kordofan that had been under RSF control, following a series of swift engagements that took its adversary by surprise. Among the most important are Umm Sayala and Jabra al-Sheikh, situated to the north and north-east of El-Obeid, roughly 200km away. More significant is Bara, a major town with a sizeable population, considerable economic importance, and a strategic position only 45km north-east of El-Obeid.

AFP — A fighter loyal to Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan holds up a weapon backdropped by the minaret of a mosque, during a graduation ceremony in the southeastern Gedaref state on 27 May 2024.

All the towns recently seized by the army lie along the road leading to Omdurman in the capital, Khartoum. Known as the Export Road, this route indicates that the advance is intended, in military and strategic terms, primarily to protect the capital and central Sudan, as well as El-Obeid itself, from the dangers already outlined. Yet despite the army's advance to the north and north-east, and its success in securing arteries, the RSF siege remains firmly in place to the west, south, and south-west. This poses the gravest danger to the city.

The army's victories in the northern and north-eastern approaches to El-Obeid have given it an important sense of progress, while spreading frustration through RSF ranks, but no one doubts that a storm is coming. In two successive speeches, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti) has sought to rally his fighters, promising promotions and money if they show greater resolve in battle. The capital, Khartoum, is the RSF's objective, but its immediate target is El-Obeid.

Warnings without effect

In June, Norwegian diplomat Tormod Endresen addressed the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to warn of the brutality facing civilians in El-Obeid. "An imminent danger threatens nearly 500,000, including more than 100,000 displaced," he said. The Coalition for Atrocity Prevention and Justice in Sudan (which includes Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and Canada) had earlier issued a similar warning.

Rapid Support Forces (RSF) / AFP — This image grab taken from handout video footage released on Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces Telegram account on 26 October 2025, shows RSF fighters celebrating in the streets of el-Fasher.

In El-Fasher, the international community failed to prevent the brutality and abuse that had been predicted months earlier, suggesting that such warnings alone carry little weight in practice. For those who still think peace talks may work, Hemedti's latest speech was of note. "They keep fobbing us off with Panadol while the other side does whatever it wants," he said. "We will not listen to anyone." It was seen as a reference to requests from abroad that his forces refrain from storming El-Obeid.

It shows how the international community has no effective means of preventing either side from advancing militarily, showing that statements from diplomats and coalitions carry no weight. With that in mind, preventing a devastating confrontation in El-Obeid will be extraordinarily difficult and require more than appeals and concern.

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