EL-OBEID, Sudan: In a displacement camp near El-Obeid in Sudan’s southern Kordofan region, Agsam Hamad trudges through searing heat to fetch murky water from a distant well, as paramilitary forces unleash their fiercest assault yet on the strategic city.
“We walk long distances for this water and it is undrinkable,” the 35-year-old mother of seven told AFP from the camp on the edge of El-Obeid, a key prize in the three-year war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
“Our situation is very difficult. We need food and water.”
El-Obeid, a city of half a million people that hosts nearly 100,000 refugees displaced by violence elsewhere, has, in recent weeks, faced its most intense RSF attacks yet.
After breaking a prolonged siege in February last year, the army has struggled to stop the RSF from reimposing a blockade through repeated drone strikes targeting the city, its infrastructure and the main highway out.
