LONDON: Once a bustling trading hub linking Darfur, Kordofan, and central Sudan, El-Obeid now finds itself trapped in an ever-tightening noose as the Rapid Support Forces gradually impose a siege that could echo the horrors of El-Fasher.
Warnings of what may lie ahead intensified on Wednesday when the International Criminal Court told the UN Security Council that Sudan could be on the brink of further mass atrocities, urging member states to act before history repeats itself.
“We cannot say we did not know,” said Nazhat Khan, the ICC’s deputy prosecutor. “It is for this council and all states to act now, to prevent further atrocities.”
Echoing the UN Human Rights Office, she warned that El-Obeid, in North Kordofan, could become the next site of grave international crimes as fears mount of an RSF offensive.
Sudan’s war began in April 2023, when fighting erupted between the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, and the Sudanese Armed Forces under Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan after months of tensions following the 2021 coup.
