Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are tightening their siege of the army-held city of Al Obeid in the contested North Kordofan region, with residents reporting drinking water shortages and soaring food prices.
Residents told The National the RSF had surrounded Al Obeid from three directions and intensified attacks in recent weeks. This has raised concerns that the city faces the same fate as El Fasher, the army's last stronghold in Darfur, which fell to the paramilitary group last year following a long siege.
Al Obeid has been under partial siege by the RSF for more than two years, but the paramilitary force, which has been fighting the national army since 2023 for control of the vast Afro-Arab nation, has recently stepped up its campaign to capture the strategic city.
The RSF, led by Gen Mohamed Dagalo, has been reinforcing its positions on the outskirts of the city to tighten the siege and cut supply lines to the army garrison inside.
Videos circulating online purport to show a column of RSF all-terrain fighting vehicles heading toward the city. They also show fighters warning residents to stay away from army installations inside the city.
A UN report published this week said that between last Thursday and Sunday, drone attacks reportedly targeted several sites in Al Obeid, including a power substation and a fuel station.
'Same starvation tactic'
Residents told The National on Wednesday that the city was being attacked daily by RSF drones that target military and civilian installations.
“The pressure on Al Obeid has impacted services, especially after petrol and power stations have been hit along with supply routes,” said one resident who, like others in this article, spoke on condition of anonymity over fears of reprisals.
“This is the same starvation tactic the Rapid Support Forces used in El Fasher and which facilitated its eventual capture,” he said.
Darfur, a region roughly the size of France, is now completely under RSF control.
“There is an acute shortage of drinking water and the price of almost everything has skyrocketed because drones are targeting services every day,” said another resident of Al Obeid. “But hospitals are still operating and the markets are adequately supplied, but everything is expensive.”
The city, home to about 500,000 people, was plunged into darkness last week when RSF drones struck its main power station, residents said at the time. The attacks also cut the water supply to thousands of homes and halted work in several hospitals.
Al Obeid is about 400km south-west of the capital, Khartoum. It is home to the army's 5th Infantry Division, an outfit with vast combat experience in past civil wars. Militias aligned with the army are also stationed in the city, a major commercial hub.
Losing Al Obeid would be a major blow to the army, similar to the loss of El Fasher, which was followed by a wave of atrocities by the RSF, some ethnically motivated, prompting an international outcry and a stream of condemnations.
Gen Dagalo had pledged to investigate the incidents and prosecute the perpetrators.
Controlling Al Obeid could also be a threat to Khartoum, which was under RSF control for about two years before the army drove the paramilitary out. However, the RSF is believed to hold small positions in the desert outside Omdurman, one of three Nile-side cities that make up the capital's greater region.
Global concern
The battle for Al Obeid is part of the intensifying fighting in Kordofan, where the RSF and its powerful allies already control large swathes of territory. They also control parts of Blue Nile state in the country's south.
Dozens of countries, including Britain, France and Germany, raised the alarm last week at the UN Human Rights Council that the RSF could escalate an assault on Al Obeid.
“We are deeply concerned at the risk of imminent escalation on the ground, leaving approximately 500,000 civilians at risk of falling victim to large-scale atrocities, including more than 100,000 internally displaced persons,” Norway's envoy to the UN, Tormod Endresen, told the council in Geneva.
On Monday, the US joined those warnings, with the State Department expressing concern over reports that the RSF was massing forces around the city, potentially setting the stage for a major offensive.
Like the RSF, the army is also accused of war crimes, including the use of chemical weapons and indiscriminate bombing that has killed thousands.
Sudan’s military leadership has also been facing mounting scrutiny after announcing plans to integrate Islamist militias into the SAF. The Islamist movement, ousted in Sudan’s 2018-19 uprising, appears to be backing prolonged military rule as it seeks a political comeback, having deployed fighters in the country's war on the army's side.
As well as the capital, the army controls the nation's eastern, northern and central regions. The army-backed Sudanese government is based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, while a parallel government formed by the RSF last year has its headquarters in Nyala, Darfur.
Since the war broke out in April 2023, tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and about 14 million displaced. The war has also created the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with 25 million people – almost half the country's population – facing hunger.
