UN Warns Rapid Support Forces Could Commit Mass Atrocities In El Obeid, Sudan

The UN warned that mass atrocities could soon be committed in Sudan’s southern city of El Obeid as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied groups reportedly mass troops around the besieged city in North Kordofan.

Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, told the Security Council that Sudan had reached “1,000 days of horrific violence” and said no region of Sudan was safe from the threat of attack.

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DiCarlo said fighting continued to spread with front lines fluctuating in North Darfur, North Kordofan, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile, and she described long-range drones and airstrikes by both sides as a defining feature of the conflict.

In El Obeid, the US State Department echoed the UN’s fears, saying Washington was “deeply concerned” by reports of the RSF build-up and that “There are alarming indications that mass atrocities could be imminent.”

The UN Security Council voiced alarm on Saturday over the risk of a possible ground assault on El Obeid and called on the RSF to halt its offensive against the city, the capital of North Kordofan state.

The Security Council statement also raised concern over reports of drone strikes carried out by the RSF in El Obeid and the increasing use of drones across Sudan, urging that violations and abuses be investigated and those responsible held accountable.

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Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned that a looming assault on El Obeid carries a serious risk of international crimes, saying, “States with influence have a responsibility to use it now,” to stop the violence “before it is too late.”

In parallel, the European Union warned that El Obeid must not be allowed to suffer the same fate as El Fasher, where an RSF ground offensive in April forced hundreds of thousands to flee amid widespread reports of abuses.

The UN warned that an attack on El Obeid could mirror violence seen during the RSF’s October 2025 offensive on El-Fasher, which UN officials said bore the “hallmarks of genocide.”

The UN and US warnings tied the risk to the humanitarian situation, with the UN describing a crisis that is deteriorating rapidly and Rosemary DiCarlo stressing that any ceasefire must be based on a credible political process.

Edem Wosornu, Director of the Operations and Advocacy Division at OCHA, said more than one million people are displaced in the Kordofan region and that “4.2 million children and pregnant or lactating women suffer from acute malnutrition.”

The Globe and Mail reported that the RSF intensified its assault on El Obeid with “hundreds of drones and armoured vehicles,” and it said the fighting had blocked convoys of humanitarian aid while most schools, markets, shops, and humanitarian warehouses had closed.