OHCHR Warns Relentless Drone Strikes Are Devastating Sudan’s El Obeid Amid Escalating War

By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – UN human rights chief, Volker Türk said on Friday that the war in Sudan spriraling as the strategically-important town of El Obeid continues to face “relentless” drone attacks by advancing paramilitary militias

He called for urgent action from world leaders to stop the heavy fighting that has already caused a massive humanitarian emergency in Sudan and beyond.

Mass atrocity crimes against civilians have been a regular feature of the war that erupted in 2023.

Mr. Türk’s office documented 15 drone strikes on El Obeid the capital of North Kordofan and surrounding areas, which killed at least 45 civilians.

The lethal autonomous weapons launched by former allies the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the national army, the Sudanese Armed Forces “have repeatedly struck markets, schools, fuel stations, water infrastructure and civilian vehicles”, he said.

Mr. Turk explained the terror now gripping besieged El Obeid.

“Some people are selling their belongings to finance their escape from the city. For many, the exorbitant cost of transport and constant attacks on vehicles along exit routes, make leaving impossible.

“We have documented patterns of summary executions, abductions, torture and ill-treatment, sexual violence, and looting along the routes taken by displaced people across the Kordofan region.”

According to his office, OHCHR warned the previous atrocities against civilians including in the besieged North Darfur city of El Fasher last October, where 6,000 people were killed in a three-day rampage of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

RSF paramilitaries repeatedly shelled and then overran nearby Zamzam camp, the largest camp for highly vulnerable people displaced in North Darfur by the war.

“These crimes were foreseen, with repeated warnings by myself and my Office. But they were not prevented,” Mr. Türk stressed to the Human Rights Council’.

He insisted that the “red alert” being issued “is not a drill” and needs to land on the desks of Heads of State and government around the world”.

Mr. Turk urged the Security Council to fulfil its responsibilities to prevent atrocity crimes. “El Obeid is a classic case that shows why the use of the veto should be limited, as proposed by France and Mexico more than 10 years ago,” he noted.

Accountability for the crimes committed must happen too, he stressed.

He welcomed the continued engagement of the International Criminal Court on seeking justice for Sudan’s war victims.

El Obeid has more than half a million residents, with at least 100,000 internally displaced persons many of whom fled El Fasher in North Darfur and other devastated Sudanese cities.

RSF has control over all surrounding routes, except towards the East.

Residents described growing military movements around the city by the RSF and increasing insecurity with drone attacks along exit routes, the Human Rights Council heard.

Mona Rishmawi, from the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan said “We have spoken with residents of the city. Fear is pervasive,”.

She described how statements and videos circulated on social media accounts affiliated with the Rapid Support Forces showed military build-up around El Obeid and preparations to enter the city.

The increasing attacks on power stations and water facilities, “hospitals, markets, schools, and residential areas have also reportedly been struck, causing civilian casualties and disrupting essential services. Women and children are among those killed and injured,” she said.

UN International Organization for Migration said that the number of newly displaced people across Kordofan has risen by nearly two-thirds in only three months.

The agency has also recorded more than 100 incidents causing forced displacement in less than nine months, averaging one major incident every two to three days.

“Families are being uprooted faster than humanitarian assistance can reach them,” it said.

IOM Chief of Mission Refaat Mohamed explained that civilians “continue to be the main targets in this conflict”.

The aim of this strategy “is mainly to displace them to start taking cities, empty cities,” he told journalists via video link. The El Fasher outrage “was not a one-time incident”, he continued, noting that it was part of a long-term trend in Sudan which the international community had failed to stop.

On El Obeid, he stressed that aid access is needed urgently to residents who’ve remained out of reach for two months.

“We cannot access them,” he said. “We hear the stories from our enumerators on the ground who are assessing the needs that they have no access to water, electricity and they want a way out, but they cannot.”

Sudan war has displaced more than 13 million people internally and driven millions more to the brink of famine, with humanitarian access severely constrained across much of the country.

Sudan’s envoy Salim Ahmed Ibrahim gave a heartfelt and defiant message to the members of the UN Security Council “For your information I am from El Obeid; this wounded city, it will never fall, as long as we are alive,” he said.