Humanitarian disaster looms in Sudan as Rapid Support Forces encircle El-Obeid, UN warns
NEW YORK CITY: The escalating conflict in Sudan’s North Kordofan state risks triggering a humanitarian catastrophe on the scale of last year’s siege of El-Fasher.
The warning from UN officials to the Security Council on Friday came as drone strikes intensified around the city of El-Obeid, putting an estimated 500,000 civilians at immediate risk.
Late last year, Sudanese paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces captured the city of El-Fasher after an 18-month siege, unleashing an unrelenting wave of ethnic killings, mass executions and sexual violence against civilians. A UN human rights investigation said the violence amounted to possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.
UNICEF’s deputy executive director, Hannan Sulieman, told the council that children “are paying the highest price” in the civil war between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces that began in April 2023, and in which more than 5,000 youngsters have been killed or maimed.
